Mortal Kombat: Redemption
by CrucisStar
Summary: A series of chapters following characters from the realms of Mortal Kombat. Inspired by the ending of MK11, a new era has formed, but what kind of era can survive entrenched in Mortal Kombat?
1. One - Skarlet

**B**lood.

It keeps us warm, keeps going. It's what makes you hard, what makes you other than dead. Of course it's her blood.

A young girl's blood swept through the streams that grew with each tiny dagger of rain that stabbed into the barren ground beneath us. She could not have been more than ten, but her as her flesh, wet and cold, frozen in a perpetual glare toward the night sky, her life source warmed this narrow street buried within the city beyond the Palace of the Kahn.

With just a gentle touch, that warmth coated my fingers, small, delicate, but curious and traversed the jagged edge of her jaw, removed by a strong, blunt weapon. Her tongue slack and smooth, funneled water into the cavity of her mind and there in the eternal reaches of humanity did my journey end, and my fingers curled and recoiled.

This was not a moment of horror, but exploration. If curiosity killed the cat, then strike me where I stand, wet and cold beneath this oppressive rain. The blood did not affect me as much as brutal force that mashed the mortal coil of life and death into a tangent of endless nothingness that has become her sudden existence. Once a girl, now I can only know her as 'the body'.

Someone murdered the body. Someone strong, or someone with a powerful weapon. This is not uncommon in Outworld to see bodies in the streets, for I have seen several piled up and taken from the Coliseum, but it is a rare sight indeed to see this.

Who would do such a thing?

Perhaps the promise of death in a careless moment as I had dared the Elder Gods to curse me for my curiosity had come to fruition? The wet slap of feet on mud and stone barely broke through the barrier of rain that caged me like a helpless slave. It was only a second or less that I had to scurry like a rat back into the shadow of the alley I had crawled out of.

A large gnarled shadow crept forth into the street. It cared not for any eye set upon it, but I dared not show mine. It was as bony as it was big, it's limbs twisted and writhed around itself. As it neared the body, what little light allowed me to see this creature revealed that it was what the merchants called 'The Kollector'. One of those Naknada creatures that littered Outworld like the rodents that feasted on the scraps of its cities.

This one, its kind were known to travel from city to city, town to town, shrine to hovel and collect tributes, taxes, and sometimes heads for the Kahn. This one, however, was shrouded in tattered black cloth. It would be too little cloth to call a robe, and too much to call a hood. It draped over it's head so those red goblin eyes shined like the blood under a gleam of moonlight.

This Naknada unfurled it's two largest arms like a shokan, but not as muscular as Goro, nor as smooth as Sheeva, and reached for the little body like it were a tribute to collect.

It's eyes scanned the darkness, the light, and the cracks between time and space in this small street that lead down a winding road barely connected to the main pathways to the Coliseum. It was a street only urchins knew best, where the crumbs would be dropped by the carrion crows, and the bodies that were taken from the Coliseum would be carried down, to keep off of the main streets. No one lived here that wanted to.

This is where I lived, and where I saw everything.

What I did not see was the rain halted and bent over space like it had found an object it could not pass through in the very air around it that settled like a foul mist before the creature known as Kollector.

"Leave nothing behind." The strange shape of water spoke.

"No one will think twice about the blood spilled. It is stained in it every night because of the Kahn." Kollector shared words with the rain until a scaly figure formed before him.

It was like magic this strange reptilian beast melted into being. Rain dripped down its ragged leather and cloth. Clothing dark enough to hide in the night, without knowing it was there, I may not have even seen this reptile.

The two shared threats, words that promised death from a higher power they both seemed to follow, but the name was too foreign to me to understand. It seemed familiar, but so much goes on in the life of a street urchin that political and cultural affairs in Outworld do not linger in my mind, only the thoughts of where the next crumb of bread, or dead rat will be.

Why was a little girl collected by two strange creatures in the dead of night in the epicenter of the Kahn's own city beyond the palace? Why did I witness this, and do I follow them?

The answer to the last question seemed obvious to me, and it was a glaring 'yes.' This want not something an urchin sees often and may be far more fruitful than any ordinary crumb.

As soon as the reptilian beast faded back into the ambience of the city, Kollector hoisted the little girl up to its chest and then began to fold her as best it could without breaking the body already tarnished by another's brutality. As he hunched and marched into the night step by step, eyes red and shrouded, but ever vigilante, I kept to the alleys, the shadows, and followed the stream of blood.


	2. Two - Khameleon

**M**any souls are deathly afraid of the dark, but I bathe in it. Have been for nearly two years. The darkness, though not my friend now, has been a good friend to my kind, and my survival.

We hid when we became sparse, but now fate has thrown the dice against me. Numbers are but a game and knowledge is known only to those that hold it. Still, despite the darkness, despite the tides turned against me, one thing holds me to this world, one thing still keeps that flicker of light strong.

The light, that playful light grew stronger this night, but when you've been in the dark for so long, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never understand it. That light, a flicker of thought, I once believed, now burned my face. The facade of beauty and grace once enough to disguise my true intentions, my true being, now heavy like a mask that wore like leather across my heated body.

A loud dry gasp popped my tongue from my cheeks, hot like red earth and parched like paper. After a loud gasp and heavy breath, my eyes began to swirl until the lids betrayed me. Fire burned before my face from a torch held like the sun over this decrepit realm. It pulled away with a teased flick and cackle, only to illuminate its true self, a centaur.

He glared down at me, the smoke that filled my lungs pleased him, but little did it show on his stone-like face and only glistened in the vile reflection of his eyes. This was the face of a man I saw so few times before, but knew that if I did see him, I'd see something far worse after. The prison guard, one of the henchman for the scum known as Motaro. Incapable of performing his own dirty deeds, hidden within the forests, he lets his lackeys torture and hold captive those that dared to cross their territory, or cross them.

"State your purpose." He spoke, but his words cracked like paper to flame to my withered ears.

Two years ago I crossed the drylands into the Centaur Hills, toward the Living Forest. There was purpose then and still a flicker of hope that it remained somewhere within me, should I ever escape. Those intentions could not be spoken. It could not physically be pulled from my tongue, nor scraped from the caverns of my skull to present to this foul beast as an answer that could sate the ire of the desperate Motaro.

"Water-" A slap was the answer to this request. A flame brought to my face and the sweat from my very being dried like the desert I crossed to get here.

After two years my frame had weakened, thinned and withered. The skin I wore to hide from these beasts began to crack and the illusion held only by the will of my resolve, which, I knew would soon break if the torture continued. As strong as one is, as great as your will, everyone cracks, either mentally, or physically.

When I entered the hills, it was not my intention to get caught, least of all by these odorous oafs, but even a great pirate gets boarded sometimes. It has been so long since I left home on this journey, which has since become a suicide mission, that I've even forgotten my own face, my own true skin.

Two years ago I was unlucky, camped too close to the centaur sentry, arrogant that my disguise would be enough, but what I did not expect was that they had more than just the four-legged at their side. They had magic, they had wisdom. Something unholy and unlike the mind of Motaro to wield on his own. A sorcerer.

It was he that discovered me, but the brute force and the blunt mentality of the Centaurs are what got me captured and held in this forgotten prison beneath the hills. A hidden don jon of ill contempt, I've wasted away until this very day, this very moment that I couldn't have ever seen in a million years. The day I have come to dread.

My eyes, half lidded and wholly untrusted to see the world for what it was, steered downcast to the ground beneath me that melted away to visions of bugs cackling across my feet, or flames that danced with the apathetic shadows. When I looked up, a new light cast upon me, like a veil of moonlight, but far greater than any golden, or silver ray beyond my reach.

"I cannot save you." He said behind the mask, its color changed in the shadow, reflected in the light its wrinkled and worn nature. "I can only finish what you started, for our people."

Eyes do deceive. The illusion of a mortal man stood before me, no longer that of a centaur. It took minutes before my words could form for there was no spit to form it, no breath to gather, no words to speak. Lethargic and faded, he could tell there was not much time left should my condition remain, but he seemed adamant, the fire in his eyes burned brighter than the torch in his hand. The fire of my people.

"My dagger." I managed to whisper from my cracked voice.

"Where is it?" He prodded, and his eyes shifted away, as though an hourglass bleed on and time itself nearly ended.

"There is a scroll wrapped around the hilt. It must go to him. He must know." These words were too many and my throat sealed itself. My body craved moisture, and my ravenous maw needed a savior, salivation. It would speak no further without aid, lest I believed my body itself to wither to dust. Our people are capable of surviving long droughts, and months on empty stomachs, but this was torture, this was not natural.

"I know where it is. What is the message. Who is it going to?" He stared for nearly an eternity, but soon like time, it dawned on him that my body could take no more.

A moment of grace, a spill of water, not enough to sate, but enough to speak. Enough to torture me.

Words needed to be chosen carefully. He grew agitated and impatient. The centaurs may have left me here to die, but that did not mean they were far. He would need to leave now if he wanted to send this message to its rightful recipient. This man was not him, but as kin, it would now be his responsibility to carry on my mission to the chosen one.

"Syzoth." The words echoed the hollow tomb of my mind, my maw scraped itself like claws to pull it from my throat and soon the full purpose was revealed. "We are many."

Those words fell on my kin like a heavy stone. His eyes darkened as the torch flickered less and less. There was something in those eyes I had seen only once before, but in my haze it was taken as a great resolve.

"I must go, Khameleon. I will take your words with me to their rightful place." He then, like a chameleon, faded into the night.

The torch dropped and the air grew stale. The night cackled with magic and my body sunk, not defeated, but hopeful for a better future. Where I have failed, may he succeed. Not the man that stole my purpose, but the man chosen to inherit it.


	3. Three - Ko'atal

**W**here is the leadership? Where is the direction and the answers that my people need to move toward a better world for the Osh-Tekk? Have the Elder Gods forsaken us? Have the _two_ Gods forsaken me?

Tonight we rest, the ancient people of my fallen realm may look down upon men that dawn their paint, their warrior spirit, but these men that I will take with me to battle are not Osh-Tekk. Outworld is not Osh-Tekk. It is only Ko'atal that remains.

What happens tomorrow? Dawn approaches and the hooves beat hot sand, our flesh laid bare for the sun to cast its light and power upon us, but is it enough, these few men, to lead us to victory against the centaurs? Is this truly what the Kahn wishes of us? Fodder for more power?

"Who were you just now?" Her voice has lured me back to the land of the living, the present, and yet all the same, the future.

Her skin, still bare beneath coy silk after we had become one as the Gods would approve. Jade, my warrior spirit encapsulated into the body of a woman too beautiful to be called mine, to fair to call my name, but too hindered by her love of the Kahn to see my ways.

Though I had cast my sights upon the Centaur Hills not several miles out as the sun sets on Outworld, the camps of my men and fires that warm us as the world cools, I could only think of what could have been, and what should be. These men will die tomorrow, I could very well join them, all for a Kahn I do not trust. Not the way Jade does.

"I was thinking of the battle ahead." My voice seemed to calm her. The weariness in her eyes faded as mine met hers, but the worry did not fade from mine.

"Lay with me, Ko'atal." She let her delicate fingers stretch the veil of fabric against the bed of fur and silk as though it were an omen of things we could do together, and not a remembrance of what had already passed.

"How well do you trust your Kahn?" Not the wisest words to speak of in her presence, for her fire burns bright and stubborn much like mine when it is about her dear leader, but the boiling of my stomach could not provide any other word. It is as the Gods plucked them from me.

Much like everything in this world, I had no choice.

"With my life, Ko'atal. You should as well." These words were hollow to me when they shouldn't. After all, did she not trust me with her life as well?

"Kitana was at the side of Shao Kahn when he claimed that title from Onaga." This would become our tangent. A slippery slope of nothing that could find no end, no means of either of us understanding the point of the other. The gods do not dwell inside my Jade, only the fire.

"She defeated Shao Kahn to claim his title before he could do worse than Onaga." Jade continued our loose strings, like fractals of light lost to the sun, escaped into the earth, never to be witnessed, its radiance never to be felt.

Her eyes, like daggers that tried to focus on me like a fine point and blade themselves into my heart the way she had not an hour ago with her body, mind, and spirit. I hated her in that moment, no, not her, Kitana. I despised the Kahn when Jade spoke of this exploit and that boiling in the pit of my stomach rose like a great bear at Jade.

With gravel in my throat, and fangs for teeth, I responded most bitterly, "and your Kahn watched as my realm, my people, and my culture were destroyed by the Kahn she appointed! As Goro tore men, women, and children limb from limb? What worse did she prevent then?"

A moment of silence came upon us, not for the dead, but the response I never heard. That boiling burned like the burst of the angry sun and shouted from deep within the hatred of my heart at her. "Tell me!"

Nothing. This is where our tangent would always end. She would defend her friend, whom I do admit had done great things for Outworld, but for the Osh-Tekk, nothing. How many realms did Shao Kahn conquer before it was Kitana's love of Edenia that forced her to step in? Mine was not the first, nor the last.

An Edenian could never understand what it is like to lose everything. They never lost their realm to Shao Kahn, nor to Kitana Kahn.

A moment of understanding had caught me off guard in the eyes of my Jade. She looked at me, strong, but caring, but with the eyes of a woman that did not hold a barrier before her beloved Kitana, but wished to climb the stone pillars that kept us so distant.

"What would you have me do, Ko'atal?" She spoke, soft, too much so for any ear beyond this tent to hear, and yet deep to reveal her true resolve laid within the heart she then reached out to touch.

"Help me seize Outworld." These words formed an empty cut between her lips, but the shock of such a wound faded with her next breath.

"Kotal Kahn?" Did the thought cross her mind before as it had for me? I could see it in her eyes, together at the great palace with our eyes to the world that belonged to us. She pulled back however and spoke with shame, "that would be treason, Ko'atal. I could not betray my friend. Edenia's Goddess."

"A Goddess that claims to be good, does not leave the realms in ruin." This felt as the ground cracked beneath us and the stone layers of earth broke and screamed outward between us to part the way and distance us further. I could see her further and further, my hands never able to touch her beautiful dark skin, my lips to seal with hers, and our hearts to burn each other's like the tue God's demanded.

"Ko'atal," she whispered, but her breath crept back between the healed wound of her lips as a messenger entered.

"You do not announce yourself?" The Osh-Tekk would never perform such disrespect upon their leader as this Outworlder had.

"From the Kahn." He passed a scroll of vellum to her, a royal blue seal stuck to the center to hold the scroll tight.

The tent we resided in was not small. As Jade began to unseal the letter, I had prepared to reach for my weapon to threaten our intruder, but a crackle and crinkle of paper gave way to the ominous cackle and buzz of a large insect that leapt from the page at Jade.

With one strike she was able to crush it. Cut in two it collapsed upon the earth beneath her feet, but as it had, a louder buzz and the screams of my men filled the air of our encampment. With weapon in hand, we both pulled back the curtain of our hidden eden to the horrid night of a swarm that had descended upon the encampment.

A blade as large and heave as mine can cut through anything, but it cannot destroy a thousand poisonous insects in one fell blow. Our eyes became witness to one man fall, then another, then a camp torn, then a fire that burned with the blood of these creatures as those that were crushed kindled like wood and cackled like the laugh of an ancient evil. These were Kytinn assassin bugs.

The sun could not save us now, but this swarm swept up into the night wind as fast as it had descended upon us. There was no time to discern why, what, or where they had come.

"See to the injured!" Jade called out.

Inside the tent, locked away in a chest was a vial of antidote, the only one I had. Not much, and even a small bit as a rare as the Kytinn themselves. It would not save anyone tonight.

Jade pulled back the curtain, her words lost in the wind as she commanded the living men, but as she turned to me, she would certainly have seen beneath my feet as I had become so lost in the moment to notice that scroll with the Kahn's seal.

Our eyes had met, and the hands that tore the very plates of this world apart seemed to stretch their hardest to push us further and further until you would dare call it two separate worlds we lived on. I cold see it in her eyes, the intentions in mine, and she knew the fierceness of my heart, the resolve of my spirit.

Was this the doing of our generous Kitana Kahn?


	4. Four - Skarlet

**I**n Space the stars are no nearer. As I child I've always tried to reach out to touch its cold expanse, only to find nothing but the heat of my breath, and the humid wasteland of Outworld's tortured nights.

My childhood spent beaten by a man I never called father, and ignored by a wretch I killed, known as my mother. It was not intended, but I remember one day, my father held me down and spat in my face as I screamed and cried. The wad of saliva slowly scraped my flesh as the tears and salt showered its parade along my shame. I screamed for her, screamed for to end. He held a finger to his dirty, jagged, and oft missing teeth to bite at the hardened skin after a long day's work in the city and produced a small steam of blood that dripped onto my wet childish skin.

"Drink it." He smiled and I gagged.

His tongue etched and burned across my face to collect and taste the salt of my horror, the rivers of my childhood that flowed like his favorite wine.

All I had ever wanted as a child was to be who I was going to become. To be normal, to have a home with a mother and father that cared, for someone to love me, and for me to have a place in this broken world. To become who I was born to be, little did I realize, meant the complete destruction of who I was born as.

His tongue crept into my quivering maw and so vengeance and desperation took over, like a fit of survival and rage that ripped that gross flesh from its disgusting moist cavern! Oh, I drank his blood alright, but it did not kill him. His hands found my throat and my mother screamed at us both to just shut up. We were a bother to her as she was drinking her tea and enjoying a relaxing evening in a land of illusion where I did not exist and she never accepted the bond of a man that could never love her. Not like he showed his twisted version of love to me every night she refused him.

That girl, that starlit child that reached for the heavens discovered one night that the stars were never there. Flickers of dead light in a world beyond my comprehension. I only knew then that they did not care, no one did. The only person to ever fight for me, to ever try to save who I was was who I wanted to become.

Horrified at the sight of his tongue spat across our small decrepit space you might call a home, I ran to the wash basin, a knife had been placed there after he had skinned a meal he had only cut for himself. It was intended that night for me to kill my father, this man I could not bestow such an honor as that title, this disgusting sack of meat and filth, but when I turned back into the small den of a living space he would beat and destroy me in, he was gone and only a trail of blood remained. In my anger, I whipped the knife down like a star torn through the night sky and spiraled down into the Earthen swill of Outworld's feet and connected into my mother's chest. Right between the third and second rib was her filthy, fat covered heart.

Funny. I never knew she had one until it bled out.

Funny the kind of thoughts that run through your mind when you gaze absently at the very thing that create you. Snapped back to reality, I watched the stream of this child's blood drizzle across the stone and dirt streets of the city beyond the Coliseum. The Kollector has packaged this little girl into his backpack to hide as he trekked through twisted alleys until I had followed him to a hollow den close to the outskirts, and closest to the Forbidden Forest.

Here there were no lights to help me find him. No flicker of moonlight that danced across the red stream to illuminate the way. As best as I could to reach his final destination, there was only nothing. It wasn't until I could smell the foul breath of this creature closer than I would have liked to know it did I reach my destination.

"I have the girl." He breathed, a scrape of throat that escaped his maw like a claw digging across stone.

"You disappoint me, Kollector." Another voice, not the reptilian, but someone else, had answered him after the creek of a door being slowly edged open preceded him.

I had remained hidden behind a hovel between this stone den and the wall that barely contained this city from being bled into the Forbidden Forest. This voice was smoother, but older, and sound wise beyond its years.

"He tore her jaw off." Kollector hissed.

As I stretched my body to its limits just to see a reflection in the puddles that pooled under the rain that had begun to retreat back into the clouds, I had seen a great green aura form. This was no reflection, no shadow, no cloud, no mist. It was its own light source, like the ambient heat of a soul as once told to me by my grandmother that claimed to have seen one collected by an ancient sorcerer.

"We are not alone." These words startled me.

They had to have herd my gasp, a young girl only slightly older than the one that had bled out into the streets. I held still against the wall of the hovel, with no intention to discover the truth. No intention to move for hours, if not for the rest of the night. It didn't take long though for the door to shut, and the sound of this ominous rain to cease.

My breath stretched from my lungs to the soil in a slow crawl that, in the coldest wind of outworld would reveal how jagged my heart beat. So horrible and yet so exciting.

Her blood enchanted me, and these secrets beyond the walls excited me to no end. This girl could only bite her lip in anticipation of being caught, of having to fight her way to freedom, to kill, to live, to survive another night.

Blood was how I was born, and blood is who I am. Who this girl was, I had decided to learn the truth of, but who she became after death, that, was the true gem. Who was she to them now that she had fallen? Was she like me when I killed my mother, when I later found my father and cut his throat in these very streets? Did she try to cut theirs?

The stars may be no nearer, but a whole new world laid itself out just before me. To die before I step upon it, or to become its new inhabitant?


	5. Five - Raiden

**T**ime has been like kind grandson come to tend care for its ancestor, for what came before, but fate as has been crueler.

It is 1495, Five hundred years before Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade would partake in the ancient rite to defend Earthrealm in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Fifty years ago, Kung Lao, now labelled 'The Great' defeated the sorcerer Shang Tsung. Without Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung claimed to fight for Outworld under the current Kahnum, Kitana. However, that was a lie.

In an attempt to reclaim his thrown, Shao Kahn had tried to sabotage the tournament, but Kung Lao was destined to become champion. That seems to be where destiny chose to end its tight grip on time.

This new timeline, better than its predecessor, is not without evil and not without turmoil. Every good choice is responded to with an opposite reaction. How Liu Kang has chosen to carve time, I did not expect, but as a former master, I can be proud in the choice he has made, no matter fate's hand in it.

Together, at the behest of the White Lotus Society, we have met many times to discuss fate, destiny, time itself. The choices he has made, and not just Liu Kang, but Kitana. Tonight, as I stare back at him with the eyes of the a father proud of his son, they wilt at the broken furrow of his brow that sinks like an agent of time in the blood sea.

As tea had been placed before us, I offered him the opportunity to drink first, and then took mine. With careful consideration, and considerate of our server, a young monk in training, we waited for him to pass before our words echoed the room provided to us.

"What troubles you Liu Kang?"

"Kitana."

As I understand it, Kitana and Liu Kang have begun to drift apart. Though I have merged my energy and my status as a God into and infused within Liu Kang, Kitana was only given a remnant of that as Liu's request to allow her the ability to withstand the eons with him. It was a suggestion I gave him, and perhaps another mistake I had made before this new timeline.

He added, "we have not spoken, Raiden, for ten fifty years. Not since The Great Kung Lao defeated Shang Tsung and the sorcerer's deception was discovered."

"A deadly alliance with Shao Kahn was imminent. Some people simply make bad choices, no matter who, no matter when. She could not have expected otherwise."

"She knew well before the tournament. It was Kitana, Raiden, not just you and I that ensured Shao Kahn's interference did not help Shang Tsung win the tenth tournament started long before Kitana decided to claim the throne."

This is true. People's choices are hard to understand when they refuse to let you in. Liu Kang and Kitana seemed like the perfect couple to shape time, and steer the realms into a better future, but ultimately that was nonsense. There is no better future, no greater peace for the realms. When one world ends, something else begins. When one evil is snuffed out, it only serves to bolden another.

"Raiden," he took another sip of the hot tea and in his eyes, I could see the old Liu Kang. "Would you compete in Mortal Kombat, to serve Earthrealm alongside Kung Lao against Outworld?"

"It would seem our roles have changed, Lord Liu Kang. It is true that in our timeline, Kung Lao dies at the hands of Goro in the tournament that began the new streak, however, things are not as it was." This had to be pressed, "Kitana has no intentions of invading Earthrealm. She is a good Kahn, and she is your eternity."

"I do not mean to defeat Kitana, Raiden, merely to help her understand the choices I have made."

"To stand back as I had and only assist the realms as needed? I believe she already understands, Lord Liu Kang." A small grin, to see man in my position, to see him, with all his godhood still consult with me. "It is not understanding she needs, Lord Liu Kang, it's acceptance."

"We watched the realms unfold, saving what we could from Onaga, and then Shao Kahn, but no matter who we saved, another would fall. Edenia stands, but at the cost of three other realms. Onaga falls, but yet Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn still live. Kronika, Shinnok, and Cetrion do not exist in this timeline, yet Quan Chi still tampers with the realms as he did then. Where he is, no one knows, but the evils of our past still plague the present."

"That is a fate worse than death, Lord-" He raised his hand in what I thought was to decline the next serving of tea, but was actually to stop me.

"Please, Raiden. Call me Liu Kang. You have earned that."

"I have made many mistakes as well Liu Kang. I could only help as best I could, and I serve you to do the same. Kitana understands this, she just hasn't accepted it."

"That is why I wish for you to enter the tournament, to join with Kung Lao to defeat Goro. Shang Tsung will not enter this time, he has disappeared, but Kitana still means to win, if only to ensure the stability of Outworld and the protection of Edenia."

"I have seen you make bolder and better choices than I, Liu Kang. I will fight for you, but know that sometimes fate is a crueler mistress than destiny. Somethings cannot be changed."

"Then let us pray to the Elder Gods that Kung Lao's defeat is not one of them."

It was Liu Kang's destiny to help shape the realms, but it may not be his fate. It was mine to protect Earthrealm, but my true fate is unknown even to me when I was a God in his place. Kitana must learn that not all things can be saved, though she knows that evil cannot be stopped, all the things she holds dear must be allowed to unfold as they do. You cannot save your grandparent from dying, only accept that one day they will. That is the lesson she has yet to learn. The question remains though, what is her destiny, and fate? Not even Liu Kang knows.

Not even the Elder Gods.


	6. Six - Jade

**A** dense, dry fog covered the ground around the palace. It followed the cold wind into the twisted streets of the city beyond the Kahnum's fortress. It was almost like snow. My waist waded through the ominous clouds as I neared the palace, its weight settled like a fine sediment in my mind, thickened into a darkened doorway of terrible thoughts.

Although I was welcomed by the guards as I had many times before, as though I myself were the Kahn of Outworld, the toxic event that the Kytinn plagued upon Ko'atal's camp sickened my mind with fear that this would be that last time I'm welcomed here, the last time I would see Kitana as a friend, family, and ally.

To understand the battle that waged in my head, I shifted from my feelings for Ko'atal and Kitana individually, and they just never mixed as well as before that night. Kitana helped raise me, she is the Goddess of Edenia. Descend from the heavens and selected me as her personal bodyguard and friend. Together we fought Shao Kahn, the Shokan rebellion of Goro and Tarkatans. We planned the battle for the Centaur Hills together and it was my plan to include Ko'atal. It couldn't have been known to either of us that there was a plot to kill us from the Kytinn.

She couldn't have.

The palace never looked better in the hands of a woman, an Edenian at that and a Goddess even. The Kahn before here had no interest in reconstruction, no interest in beauty or maintenance. Shao Kahn was a conquerer and a destroyer. We lived in filth and the planet suffocated for it, which in tern turned Outworld into a barren wasteland of hell. The palace spires I pass toward the great hall held flags for Edenia and Outworld on one, and flags for the fallen on the next. This was Kitana's choosing.

'Mortals must choose their own fate,' she said, when Osh-Tekk's last survivors joined Shao Kahn, but then decreed intervention when Edenia and Earthrealm were next on the chopping block. It was only then did the Lord Liu Kang and Kitana intervene. Protectors of the Realms, but how many had fallen before they upheld these titles?

No, these are the thoughts Ko'atal would have me dwell on. He does not know of the nights I would consult and console the Kahn as the realms crumbled around us. There was always two sides of a story, and I needed to hear Kitana's.

The guards at her royal chambers greeted me as if I were Kitana herself. Many nights I'd be in this chamber with her with plots of saving the Realms, of just chatting all night as girls, of practicing combat away from prying eyes that could fly over the courtyard, or camouflage into the walls themselves. Outworld was not safe, even in the hands of a Goddess, so she taught me everything she knew in private. I was her deadliest ally. Knowing all of her secrets.

Inside the chamber, Kitana stood, almost like Ko'atal had, at the large window that overlooked the city beyond the palace. She wore a black and royal blue dress that cascaded like a waterfall down past her feet. Her fingers held to the stone in a most delicate nature as though the fog would creep in and crush them. Those blue eyes turned to me and in one glance, her face smiled with the welcome of family, but knew a moment later that this visit would not be pleasant. Sometimes you just know someone's demeanor the moment you see them, if you know them well enough.

"Did we lose the battle, Jade? I have not heard back from the encampment. I did not expect you to bring my report."

"There was no battle."

"We recruited sixty Osh-Tekk to take Motaro's forces by surprise, and yet you're telling me there was no blood shed?" Her eyes narrowed, "don't tell me Ko'atal learned to tame the great Centaurs and is riding to the palace on the back of Motaro?"

"What a sight that would be, my Kahn, my Goddess, but no. We were attacked by a swarm of Kytinn."

You can tell someone's intentions if you know them well enough by their actions. Not the big movements, but the nuance of their body language. I knew Kitana as well as myself, or so I'd like to think. At this news, she turned to me suddenly, her hands pulled from the stone window like it had turned too cold to touch and I saw genuine concern in those eyes. It couldn't have been Kitana.

"Ko'atal?"

It is good to hear her concerned for him, though I know he would be here, voice raised, chest out and stubbornly proud to accuse her. "He is fine, but we were caught unawares. A scroll that held one of the insects was marked with your seal. He is not sure what to think of this."

"If he Ko'atal believes I had a hand in this, he is wrong. Motaro must be defeated to truly unite Outworld."

"Then why send the Osh-Tekk alone? Why not seek Sheeva and Goro for assistance, or Baraka?"

"You know the nature of these unsteady alliances that only I hold together, Jade. I had hoped they would see the strength of Ko'atal and be assured that my grip on this realm was trusted by its allies. Now, with Ko'atal's defeat, Baraka and the Shokan will question one another, surely certain that they are the only race capable of taking down the Centaurs."

"That is not the fault of Ko'atal and the Osh-Tekk, Kitana."

"No, I suppose not." She added, "but I cannot trust them to perform this attack alone."

She motioned for the door and in one swift breath, dashed several of my hopes of ending this conversation on a note that would strengthen my point against Ko'atal's concerns.

"Pull the Osh-Tekk from the Centaur Hills. I will see Goro and send the Shokan."

Before my friend could pass me at the door, I held her shoulder and stopped her. Her skin, though covered in a silken dress, felt cold to the touch. She had spent much of her time by that window to overlook her domain.

"No, Kitana. You must do it."

My hands was moved with a gentle push at first, and I watched it fall to my side and then looked back into the eyes of my Goddess.

"If this is a task you cannot perform, then I will send Reiko to tell Ko'atal to retreat."

"Ko'atal believes you sent the Kytinn to assassinate me and murder his clan."

"Preposterous! Only an Osh-Tekk would be so stubborn to think such a thing."

Words like a dagger. She took a step back as we would battle this point out until someone, usually her, would win.

"Where is the evidence otherwise, Kitana?"

"You too, Jade? Shall I present my back for you to stab?" She turned in mock jest, but really, those words did hurt her as a dagger would. They needed to be said, but hers did not, "I am your Kahn. You do as I say and trust my word."

"The Goddess that allowed the destruction of realms at the hands of Shao Kahn, until he found Edenia. Until he planned to invade Earthrealm. Where were you as the Osh-Tekk went extinct? As Tarkata fell?"

In this moment of contention, the world around me hadn't fully faded. We were in the palace, in one room that overlooked the city. The Great Hall where Kitana would meet her guests fell directly beneath us and her chamber was connected to the palace chapel and from the window, you could see the castle's dungeon tower. As the progression of our conversation degenerated into madness, I did start to think that was where it would end, but after this assault of words, she pushed herself back to the window to escape me, to take our eyes from one another and I could see she was pensive, hurting.

"There are many secrets I can trust you with, Jade, but not all." She let flow from her lips a darker intention, or is this just lip service to escape our argument?

"You can trust me with everything, Kitana. I have chosen you over Ko'atal more times than he can count. I just want to understand why the world is the way it is. There is growing dissension against you, and I don't want to see you and Ko'atal fight the way we fought Shao Kahn."

"I've saved Osh-Tekk many times, Jade. Many times. Every time I had, Earthrealm, Chaos Realm, Order Realm, or Edenia would all fall to Shao Kahn. I begged Liu Kang after seeing the destruction of Edenia and our people. I thought I could stand back and let mortal men choose their own fate, but ultimately my compassion was too much to see this so vividly, so brutally shred the realms apart."

This was new. This is not something she had ever hinted at. Kitana was a Goddess, so it stood to reason she would have traced the eons with Lord Liu Kang, but to rewrite history? Impossible.

"What do you mean?"

"This is not the first timeline that we have met, Jade. I took you in and trained you, made you my personal guard, because in a previously timeline, you were my closest ally. The only person I could trust. Liu Kang had defeated a Titan to gain control of time and fate, history of the realms in his hands, and those hands chose mine to share it with."

It seemed like fluff, like filler conversation to break the argument with sorrow, with pity. There was truth in her eyes, but her words rambled things that could not be possible. How could you change history? Fate itself is written in stone.

She continued, "I told Liu that the realms, no matter what we did, would still find evil to course them, but as we tried to remain impartial to that, changing only what we felt we could, it became increasingly certain that Evil would win. Shao Kahn defeated Onaga as before, but without Lord Raiden, Earthrealm was defeated in Mortal Kombat. Edenia long gone by that time, and then so too fell the Chaos and Order realm. The Elder Gods did nothing so long as Shao Kahn did not threaten their existence. They too became agents of evil, defenders of Shao Kahn's rule. That's when we decided to change back time and fix things." She added, "we killed Onaga ourselves, but then Shao Kahn still rose up. So we did it again, and this time lost to Onaga, who had partnered with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, so we did it again. This time, we lasted until the the return of Onaga, where Quan Chi and Shang Tsung had killed the champion of Mortal Kombat, Kung Lao. Without Raiden's sacrifice in the first timeline, Onaga came back and decimated the realms. We never reached the point of Armageddon, where Argus and Blaze would allow us to eliminate our enemies in one fell swoop, one singular battle and allow a single champion to craft a new future. We took time, but time and time again it proved that we had no true control over good and evil."

She turned to me, and with soft rivers that began to trace her cheeks, "I betrayed you to save you. I can only do what I feel is right to steer history down the best path possible. For those decisions, I have lost Liu Kang and Raiden, I have lost my own mother, and I did not want to lose you."

So much said, so many words spoken to absorb. Our conversations seemed ever so brief, but this was a lot to take in. However, one things did come in clear. Kitana had betrayed me, for better or worse, it is still betrayal. She is no longer someone I could trust.

"You have used me as a tool to craft a better future for yourself. If that's true, then I cannot be at your side." The choice was simple.

"I had every good intention, Jade."

"Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best of intentions." Aiding Shao Kahn against Onaga comes to mind. A plan concocted by Kitana. "Ko'atal suffers because you think he has to so you can live a better life. I now suffer because my mentor and friend lied to me my entire life."

She tried to plead with me, tried to curry favor to save our relationship, but as the bridge crumbled, a bridge I wished not to destroy, I pushed her back and stepped away. There was only one choice I could make.

"I must speak Lord Liu Kang."


	7. Seven - Ko'atal

**A**nswers will be found at the end of this harsh light of day. As my chest burns and the Gods decree, the truth will come to light, or the darkness will suffer for its secrets. Right now, Kitana is suspect, but it is not like her to work with the Kytinn, of that, I will give to Jade.

Who, if not Kitana?

My men, the ones that had survived, are all Osh-Tekk painted and pained, but they are not Osh-Tekk. By the pillars of strength that turn the ground to shadow in light of the weakened warriors, they will never be Osh-Tekk, but these are men I trust to take to battle.

"Gather round!" It's easy to command men that wish to follow, but these men are as much warriors as Shao Kahn was. It's good to have them, and it'll be better to discover the truth with their swords at the ready. "We will have our vengeance against the Kytinn assassin, and who ever sent them, but we must tread carefully to discover who sent them. I suspect our very Kahn."

"Words of treason." One spoke out, but not in disrespect. That would mean death.

"That is why we must be sure." A few steps over the ridge we could see the much of the Centaur Hills beyond us. As the sun began to peak over the horizon, to glare down at the Centaurian camp much as we did, the strength to plan our next move bared across my chest and its seeds grown within my mind. "I will take two of you and we will venture through the hills to the Centaurian holdfast. We must find out everything we can, for though we had planned a surprise attack on Motaro, it is possible with the list of enemies growing that they already knew."

With a stern glance and nod, I had chosen my two, the most trusted and the strongest of this tighter group. The Centaurs were most active at this hour, and though they are big, they are fast. The body of a man on across the shoulders of a horse granted them opposable thumbs and language, but most of all, carnivorous maws. They were not to be trifled with and would be vigilant.

As night fell again over the camp, several of the tents now filled with the bodies we had begun to prepare rituals for, I took my leave with the two best men of them and descended down to the vast sea of hills.

Blades of grass as sharp as the knifes we tucked at our side, and the spikes on Motaro's tail. The trek was rough, and we travelled slow to maintain secrecy. If our own camp could not detect us, then neither could the Centaurs.

Osh-Tekk was a beautiful realm for a warrior. Covered in blood and pride, but I will admit that to see Outworld at night was second only to that. Still, I prefer a world of eternal sunlight so that we may bathe in the power of the sun. This mission could see no battle at night, for though Osh-Tekk are strong, I am not at my full strength until the sun rises.

The long grass rose and declined over the hills and stretched out to Motaro's keep. There, the Centaurs would be vast, and his best warriors, just as mine were, at his side. We did not plan to enter the keep from the front. This cannot be a bold mission.

One of my men touched my chest, to hold me back from my next step as he reached out to point toward something that I had not caught. The strength of Centaurs is incredible. It took only one to throw the trash out, which could be whole stones, or in this case, bodies. It looked as though, from the distance we maintained, that this centaur had the duty of disposing the dead prisoners. This might be the best way in.

We moved again, each step silent, slow, but sure. The closer we came, the bigger the structure seemed. The strength of Centaurs build a stone holdfast that not even Onaga would be able to breakthrough alone. However, it was not tall. For a horse to fall, it could mean the end of that animal, imagine that for a Centaur. A wonderful sight it would be, but we mustn't be so bold.

Around a few corners, a sentry above us with his eyes to the plains and hills, there was plenty of room to hide in the tall grass that their bodies towered over. The entry on the opposite side of the keep we crossed, we would be in the clear, but knew that there would always be someone watching.

The centaur we had spotted dropped the last body, covered in a shredded black cloth and let it fall from the pyramid like mound of flesh and rubble. He entered the keep through a large portal door that sealed behind him with what sounded like a stone block to lock themselves in. No one would get out from that exit, but it also meant we could not get in.

Roughly a yard out the bodies, old and new peaked our interest. It was decided, with a glance and a nod, between the three of us that one would check the rubble before collectors would come to dispose of the trash, and burn the bodies at a far away pyre. I chose to move forward, but my headdress would need to be removed.

Adorned in green paint and feathers to mask myself in the long grass and greenery of the Centaur Hills, it has been a great aid to this point to camouflage, but the mound of filth was in a small barren circle of dirt. My flesh, dark and, but painted in greens and white would expose myself to any onlooker. Above, only one centaur was stations roughly three stories above us in a tower that connected along the walls of the holdfast, but more importantly, it the keep had no machicolations. This was vital to moving forward undetected.

Having surveyed this poor choice of infrastructure, it would be safer for me to reach the bodies, but not to linger too long. With no eyes to pear between the cracks of the structure's wall, typically where defenders would shoot their arrows at attackers, I used the wall as protection and began forward.

My two Osh-Tekk stayed behind, crouched low in position and weapons at the ready to strike. They stood by the door, one on each side, though the portal opened outward, that would be both a benefit to mask ourselves, but also a detriment. I would be completely open to any attack from a Centaur that rushed forward before my men could round the corner and strike, but the creature would not see them, should I be able to clear the way first.

With our Gods watching, I steered my direction straight ahead until I could see the formations beneath burial rags. There were stones carved and fallen from previous battles, or broken structures with normal wear and tear, but it was the bodies I was interested in. Would I find Edenian corpses? Outworlders? Rivals, allies, or wanderers unlucky to stumble into Motaro's territory? This was not the main fortress of the Centaurs, but we knew this was where Motaro would be as he travelled to his castle east of the hills. If we were caught, we'd be at his mercy, and the centaurs are not known for it.

The bottom string of bodies were crushed by wood, stone, and trash. They would not be worth my time to sift through, but one did catch my eye. The top, it had fallen down the side, away from the keep, but it meant I'd be further out and possibly easier to spot from the sentry above. The burial cloth was just rags, perhaps the blanket of the poor that have decorated the floors or stables of their human captives, but beneath, a female form revealed itself to be most interesting.

By the Gods grace I was able to sneak past and round foul, odorous corner of this pile and crouch low enough to remain hidden so that I may inspect further. Having pulled the dung stained cloth from her body, what interested me when they had thrown her onto the pile became clearer now that I could look into her eyes. Reptilian. Zaterran. She wore rags for clothing, but one might have been able to wash them and see the grey and block colors beneath the dung and blood. Her chest flatted out into a more reptillian and scaled flesh like an alligator found in Earthrealm. Her eyes were grey, dead, and focused only on a single point many miles beyond her reach. May the heaven's take her, for I will not, but what frightened me about this Zaterran, was how she may have died.

It is clear by the inspection, having run my hands along her arms, having felt the lack of muscle, fat, and health within her now withered body, that she had been captive for years for reptiles do not starve easily. Her neck had sunken in to show the bare thin muscle and bone, the wiry cast of her jaw, the conical teeth that hid beneath now dried worm-like lips. Though she was starved, and most likely tortured, it was not hunger and enslavement that killed this rare beast.

"Soul Magic." Spoken beneath my breath, for I have seen dead like her before, not in her kind, but many, many others. Someone had stolen her soul.

CRACK!

SLAM!

The sound of stone on dirt being scraped against word and metal. The wooden doors, taller and wider even than Goro began to scrape the ground as they parted. I could see the brown and black of the hooves and horse-like body of the centaur between the widened crack of those doors. With no chance of flight, I had to remain low. The only option, attack at first sight, or use the burial cloth to disguise myself.

My men, unable to see me, unable to raise their signal or for me to quell their attack were left to fend for themselves in this moment. My chest began to still, like the bodies around me, and as the totems that gave us strength, I wait motionless, breathless.

"Ko'atal!" A deep, guttural voice broke the silence after the doors widened. "Show yourself, Osh-Tekk scum!"

My breath remained still, for I knew now that my men would not move if I didn't. They would remain loyal to the cause, much like a true Osh-Tekk. Good for them, but they will die at the hands of these Centaurs.

"Reveal yourself, or your encampment will burn!" The voice suddenly seemed familiar as it threatened me to betray myself.

The voice was deep and commanded attention, demanded response, and was that of the General Motaro. With any other Centaurian, I may have stayed hidden and called their bluff with my silence, but as one leader to another, I would give Motaro this one chance to state he purpose, or my men, hidden on each side of the door would kill him.

Slowly I had risen, returned my headdress to its rightful place and stood as their leader with my eyes glared up into the vile orbs of this cruel creature.

"I will not hide from _you_, Motaro."

"You cannot hide, Osh-Tekk. Your gold, and your and your human trampling can be seen and heard for miles. You think you are above us? We see and feel everything." He bluffed, and puffed his chest with his words.

Motaro was a gruesome sight. A long twisted, gnarled beard that entangled into itself and tapered like a wizard's down to the center of chest, where hair grew just as thick like the long grass around us. His forearms held the doors between him, as if ready to seal them, or throw them wide against my men. He had to have known they were there if he knew we had come before we could even hope to hide. His eyes were like black holes that stood still in a milky sea of contempt, and they glared like daggers into me.

"I grant you only one scenario, Ko'atal." He commanded with his voice, "meet me in the great hall, alone, and we will discuss fealty to the Centaurs, or you and your false Osh-Tekk will be heads on pikes at my castle."

"We discuss a truce, or we will discuss surrender, Motaro, but I will not accept deception. My men may go to the camp, unharmed."

"Then go." Motaro released the portal at each side of him and my men, with a glance and a nod, took their leave into the long grass. "You will stay, until the terms of your surrender are met by the Kahn."

Though proud I am of my abilities as a warrior, and as an Osh-Tekk, and even as a general to Kitana Kahn, it would not be in my interest to be a fool, surrounded by certain death.

A sorcerer killed the Zetarran within the walls of the Centaurs. There is only one place for me to discover the truth of that, of the Kytinn, and my place at Kitana's side.

That truth lead me into the gates of Centaurs, held within the enemy's grasp.


	8. Eight - Syzoth

**I**t has been many years that I have served my master. Many forgotten years I have served him as he withered beneath his illusions, and yet my flesh and my hunger grows stronger with each passion decade. Time means nothing to the Zetarren.

It is this flesh and this hunger that he yearns for to find his enemies and do as he commands, which is, as I act upon his next demand, tasks he could never do on his own.

She believed to have hidden herself along the blood and the stone we paved, and if I had not been here, Kollector would not have known. My master may feel, but it is my eyes that give him greater view of the world. A world none can see quite like a reptile.

The heat of her breath, the press of her heart against the ribs that shackled it beneath her pert bosom, which to I are nothing more than mounds of fat to devour with the rest of her flesh. Syzoth knows nothing of her beauty, and if she tries to use it, as she screams beneath me, I will laugh, and I will hiss, and she will scream louder.

Little did the girl know that I had climbed atop the secret building master had chosen, though secret no more, and that will not do. "Strict order," he commanded, and follow I shall for the longer I serve, the greater the power I amass in his ranks. Soon Syzoth will be the power they beg for orders from.

Though not as acute as a Tyrannosaur, the birds they were, such filth, I could smell her even in this dense city of filth and human scum. She cannot hide once I have taken in and tasted her scent. She scurred like a rat through the maze of the city beyond the Kahn's coliseum. She was still near though, she is a curious little girl.

The rain fell silent and the blood washed away into dirt and mud and collected by the river that coursed beside the city. That, after all is why they used this road to dispose of the dead. I will use this road, to drag her screaming body to my master.

Once the door closed behind me, I was off. There is no need to wait, no need for patience. My master demanded her presence, but not her death. Syzoth would not eat tonight, but perhaps this task completed would grant me access to the lower levels of our little home beneath the nose of the Kahn, where our true leader would praise me for tonight's work.

Her heat emitted a trail, much like the blood that oaf, Kollector had left behind for her to follow unbeknownst to him. What a fool. Only a Zetarran can get the job done right, I've already killed one girl tonight, so I don't need the satisfaction of removing this one's jaw, just her freedom. She made several turns, left, left, right, right, left, straight, never did she leave the city for the Forbidden Forest, where I would be even stronger and better at her capture. At least, though she did not know what followed her, was not a stupid girl.

Perhaps I would have sport to make her feel like she were. Stupid human. Stupid girl. I must have power over her.

My claws dig into the clay, the stone, and the wood that made up the housing from rich to poor to middle class. There were quarters to this city, and she remained within the slums, which meant this girl was a street urchin. She never knew money, never knew what it meant to feel like she belonged. Well, girl, now you do, as my master's slave.

Having traced her scent to the merchant's corner of the slum, which connected against the wall just before the Forbidden Forest, it seemed she may have need to rest. A girl must stop to breath and catch herself, but a Zetarran needs only the heat and the hunt to keep going. Once the walls grew thin and my weight would be too much to climb the sides, I had pulled myself up to the roofs, though some of the buildings would cave beneath me, I had ensured to climb only those that I knew could afford it.

Wealth is not evenly distributed in Outworld, though Kitana may believe herself to be a great and fair woman, she was no true Kahnum. If you saw the slums, the thieves, and the filth the rats I hunted down for my master, well, I'm no politician, merely a servant myself. I care not, just little thoughts that float from my reptilian head as I play with his little girl's hopes of freedom. Though, what would Outworld be like under my rule?

No, forget it. For now, at least. I have a task to complete.

Hiss-

My reptilian breath hissed shushed the noise around me as the wind picked up to allow me such volume, but as it died again, I spotted her. I was above her, this little girl, not yet a young adult, but not a child. She would get very excited once I claw her, and her screams will fill my head with joy. The brats always screamed louder for their souls are rebellious and by feeble beliefs, immortal.

She thought she could hug the wall and lean across the corner to see if any had followed her? What nonsense is that? Of course I have followed you. You will know soon enough, my little victim.

Patience, prisoner.

Slowly my claws etched down the walls. My body was sustained by the strength of stone and wood well crafted and nailed into place. Good money bought these walls, and the merchant booths would silence my landing as the wind brushed the cloth that waved around her.

My feet, though invisible, did splash against mud from the pools collected by the rain, but her attention was to an alley that twisted round and round until it ended with a building that took up two of the slum's blocks. It was a guild hall for the thieves, and she narrowed it to get to this point. Well hidden, little girl, but not from Syzoth.

Now that I had a better look at her, I could see pale skin and onyx hair. Long and beautiful on a little girl, but not beautiful for this creature. Just beautiful to think of how I will drag her by it and listen to her screams as no one dared to save her. Her clothing was ragged and shredded cotton. She was poor. Not only poor, but the bruises and cuts beneath her clothing revealed an abused girl. The best kind of girl to disappear into the night and become a slave to my master.

No one will miss you, little girl.

No one loves you, and no one will save you.

Closer.

Closer.

Step by step, inch by inch she believed herself free as she held still to breath. I inch and my claws, unseen by her Outworlder eyes grew larger and ready to dig into such pale and thin, fragile flesh. Oh, the wealth of human skin I could tear if my master had ordered me to devour her. The blood would be rich and spill and spoil the earth beneath us. I would lap it from the stone, from the wood and from her bones.

Perhaps I was wrong, little girl. My master has saved you. From me.

She turned around, and our eyes met. I was elated and excited that my tongue flickered inches from her face, I knew she could feel my presence, but she could only believe it to be the wind. My body took the heat of the world around it, though it did slow me down some, as my body would soon need to be energized, it was still swift enough that I could trap her in my grasp before she even knew it.

As my heat was pulled from me, hers I could feel and the scent of this girl unable to realize her fate just intoxicated me. I was drunk with her heat, and intoxicate by the hunt. In only seconds I would have her, in only seconds!

GRASP!

SCREAM!

SCRATCH!

HISS!

She was mine! But little bitch struggled! She was a fighter, a survivor. My master would maker her his favorite slave, perhaps even a sexual slave. He had not had one of her youth in decades.

"Let me go!" Oh, she screamed. Her voice was high, but I could not hear her as a human would. It did not bother me the slightest.

I threw her body against the stone wall she had previous used to hide herself from some unknown follower. My body, once in contact with hers, revealed itself, and though it did, she her only hint that I was anything other than human were my claws that dug into her flesh.

As she were thrown by my great strength, her blood stained the wall and fell to the ground and intoxicated me further. Oh, I love the feeling of blood in my maw, on my flesh, if only it would be mine to have this evening, but suddenly, as if I had been forced to sober, I saw her, not her body rise, but her hand stretch out and grasp the blood like it were the flies that hovered the dead.

Blood magic? On this cretin of a girl? She clearly did not know of her strength, but I sure did as the blood pooled into a physical orb that then whipped me into the air and my breath was taken from me. The mud scraped the leather away that hid my face from her and my true reptilian eyes and maw darted back toward her in shock, in anger, and in excitement.

I had longed for a fight, for a true hunt, and this little girl just gave it to me. With fear she looked into my eyes, and with horror looked at the blood that stained her and myself. She was little witch, a girl that I could contend against and find pride in her capture, but a girl that had just become far more valuable. Tonight, I would surely visit our true leader, for this capture would be much greater than that of the Kollector's.

She thought she could as she collected herself form the ground and spiraled around to escape me, but I just went invisible and followed suit. Unfortunately the blood could not be hidden, so it meant I would have to climb to buildings again. Some were one story and were only one room hovels, others had at least another, or even two rooms, but at least in the slums and thieves quarter, no one but the guild could afford two floors.

She tripped in the mud and slammed face first into the thieves guild wall. There I leapt and captured her. I sezied the gap of two buildings worth and landed on top of her screaming body. Had she forgotten her strength? The blood between us only grew as she fought me, but then I held her wrists down and used my body's weight to hold the rest of her.

How dare you, Syzoth, take this moment to lick the blood clean off the filthy, muddy, and tear stained cheeks of this little girl. She tasted like a hunt well made, but I could see something fierce in her glare back at me. This girl did not like being held down, and did not appreciate being licked against her will, be it by a predator like myself, or worse.

Her anger and fear only served to drunken my state.

Held by those beautiful locks tied into a ponytail as they called it, I dragged her kicking and screaming all the way back to a building just a block away from the hideout Kollector had brought her to. Here, an underground tunnel beneath Edenian tapestry, stolen from the castle by thieves my master would now and then. They would keep my secrets and her screams silent within the city, and I would keep the scarlet covered girl as my prize to bring before my master.

Perhaps the true Kahn would make me his official assassin. No one has held that rank yet, no one, until I present him with her.


	9. Nine - Raiden

**"****The** path's unbeaten, and it's all up hill, but you can meet if you have the will." May he listen while I can still stand by, but I–

"One with the universe, the Elder Gods, one with the Force." Lord Liu Kang jested, his concentration broken in the silence of his Lotus Position.

"Take this seriously, you are a God now. My energy flows within the river in you, but so does your own. That must not be taken lightly."

"I understand, Raiden, I am only joking."

"Defeating Kronika unveiled the true intentions of the Elder Gods." A most disturbing result of those events.

Though Kronika was defeated long ago, and Liu Kang had brought us to this point in time, the betrayal cannot be forgotten by me. Many years I sought their wisdom, but Kronika and Cetrion showed me that the Elder Gods care only for themselves and nothing for the realms.

"Their powers are great, Raiden, their wisdom vast, but time does not stand still for them." He understood. Liu Kang had realized the power of remaking time was greater than any being this universe had ever known. It was a power that could not be taken lightly. This, after many hardships, was learned, but for Kitana, the lesson was still hard to take in.

Liu Kang opened his eyes and turned to mine. I stood by a rack of scrolls on shelves built into the stone walls. This was no New York City, no Shaolin Temple in the modern era. This was a still considered the Medieval Era on Earth and Liu Kang had to adjust accordingly.

Things were slower here, but they were peaceful.

"Do you think she will every forgive me, Raiden?" No matter how long time went on to a God, he still felt guilty.

"That is for Kitana to discover." We had more important matters to address, "Liu Kang, as a God, I could not compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament. My powers were also weakened in Outworld."

"That is why I have asked you to compete for me, Raiden. I trust you, as you had trusted me."

"My powers are gone, and my abilities as a fighter, though rival yours as a human, may not be enough to defeat Goro."

"Under Kitana's rules, Goro will not fight to the death. I have faith you are stronger than him, Raiden. Stronger than Kung Lao."

"Why is it you believe I could defeat Goro?" No, that's not the question, and as soon as it came out, I saw him try to answer, but it had to be interrupted, "no, Liu Kang, why do you want me to be Champion?"

This one took a moment for him to answer. My age as a God was ageless, and my time timeless, but now as a mortal, and that of an Earthrealmer, it meant I would die. I had so many things that needed to be handed down Liu Kang in our lessons, but fate is fate, and time stops for no one. Only repeated.

"I don't know if I'm truly ready to be a God, Raiden."

"Nor was I, a long time ago."

"How did you do it?"

"I just did." You just go on. "I was like Kitana, Liu Kang, long ago. I stepped into save Earthrealm on many occasions, but then discovered my actions caused consequences I could not fix. Armageddon, Onaga's return."

"You stopped Kronika."

"You did, Liu. Yes, with my assistance, but I would not have succeeded had it not been for you."

"I have seen wars, old rivals rise and fall, but evil comes and goes as it pleases and cannot be stopped, even as the realms are free of Kronika's interfering."

"One thing Kronika maintained was balance in the realms. It meant constant turmoil, but it also meant that neither good, nor evil could triumph over the other. Be that as it may, you have made your choice, Liu Kang."

"A choice that has driven Kitana from me."

"A choice she will come to accept. A choice I myself had made."

"Oh, great, I am becoming like you." He jested.

"More and more everyday." I did not.

I know I said that I'd be standing by your side, but I–

"Lord Liu Kang!" A voice disrupted my thoughts.

The Edenian known as Jade. She marched through the archway into the meditation chamber we had sought peace in. Her very presence felt like a disturbance in the force, as Liu would say. The energy that peeled from her flesh felt like the night Kitana and Liu Kang parted ways. Bitter, negative, and uncertain.

"Stop there, Jade." It was my duty to protect Liu Kang. To put myself before Jade and him was all I could do, though I knew she would not stand a chance, but is that really the path Liu Kang would want to take? Jade must know her boundaries.

"You have betrayed me and Ko'atal, and all of the realms!" She blamed and projected loudly enough to echo within the chamber and breath that anger out into the world.

"I do not understand." Liu pulled himself from position and stood before us.

I held her shoulder with the hands of guidance, for it was not Liu Kang I would protect from getting into a fight, but Jade. She is no match for him.

"Kitana told me everything!"

"Kitana?"

"About sacrificing realms for your own, picking and choosing who lives and who dies. Siding with Shao Kahn!"

She misunderstood, and if this is how Kitana explained it, then perhaps the quarrel between Liu and her was greater than I had anticipated. Hurt, yes, but full betrayal? Kitana wouldn't be so bold.

"Enough!" My voice would have commanded her silence when I was a God of thunder. The rumble of the clouds and a shot of lightning that blistered the whites of my eyes, but now, just a mortal, all I could do was interrupt.

"Please, Jade, we have no need to fight. Let us talk." Liu was wiser by the day, but was Jade?

"I do not know who to trust anymore." She was.

My hand fell from her shoulder when her posture changed. She could see that Liu Kang would be no threat, but that was never my concern. This would be a moment, though, for me to see how my pupil handled situations like these that I had to deal with on many occasion, and usually with Johnny Cage.

"Please, Jade, explain what happened with Kitana?"

"She said that together you had shaped the realms to your liking. That you had decided the fate of realms that benefited your purpose together."

"Is this how she explained it to you?" These insinuations hurt Liu, and though a God, I could see the human suffering within him. He still loved her.

"Not quite," Jade continued, "but how could you choose who to save and who gets to suffer? Who gave you that power?"

Liu Kang and I shared a glance, but in truth, Jade was right. This is a lesson Liu Kang had learned long ago. He had tried to shape the realms after Kitana pleaded with him to do so. Originally, as I was told, they would allow the realms to continue unhindered and only battle the evils they thought were too great. It was Kitana's humanity that force Liu Kang's hand to interfere.

"Unfortunately," Liu Kang spoke, "somethings are a matter of fate." He added, as though the memories of those many timelines were still fresh, like blood on his hands. "We tried to make a better life for everyone, Jade. That was Kitana's intentions, but every time we saved one realm, or defeated one enemy, and other fell and another rose to meet them. Some worse than the last."

"I do not believe you."

"Then let me ask you this, Jade, where is Onaga?"

"He was defeated by Shao Kahn in battle."

"Many times over we had killed Shao Kahn at birth, but then Onaga would destroy the realms. Many times we let it happen, and then Shao Kahn would destroy the realms. Many times we had killed both of them, and then Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, and enemies worse than them would take their place and do exactly as they had."

"You didn't need to let Osh-Tekk fall, just to save Edenia."

"I didn't need to do anything. I wanted to. I am good friends with Ko'atal and his trust means a lot to me Jade, yours as well. The one thing I've learned is that somethings are chosen, not by the Gods, but fate alone."

"And Edenia?"

"In my timeline, though destroyed, Kitana was supposed to beat Shao Kahn at the pyramid of Argus, and restore the realms, and Edenia."

He had done well. Well enough that Liu Kang did not need me anymore. There were still a few more lessons to learn, and Jade would deal with this information as she saw fit, but I knew my time would be soon. I would fight for Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat, and then the realms would be in his hands.

As I stood there silent, with Liu Kang and Jade entrenched in conversation, I realized there would still be other things to do in preparation of the tournament. Kung Lao would need to be contacted. I had sought him out in my past, but now that task would belong to Liu Kang.

We also needed to deal with Kitana.

"I understand." She finally broke her stance. "Though I do not agree with it."

"I do not either, Jade."

"Where do we go from here, Lord Liu Kang?" She added, "where can we go, where fate cannot find us?"

"There is no escaping our destinies, but we still have the freedom to meet our destiny as we see choose to."

"What is your destiny?" She poised an important question even I had not asked.


	10. Ten - Kung Lao

**W**e live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.

The brains talk, but the will to live is dead. Fifty years ago, I can remember what it felt like to land the final punch that caused Shang Tsung's body to collapse into the sand. He looked up at me and his eyes reflected the souls of those he had defeated and I could swear I heard gratitude through the pupils of his eyes whispered in through thousands of lost voices.

We live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.

Now, the mountains of Lhasa are feeling the rain. A lot changes in fifty years, unless you don't age. Though the monks at the White Lotus have protected me, as I gaze out to the sun on another morning, the same thoughts they cannot protect me from filter through my head.

I shouldn't be alive.

The water was hot and ready to pour. My morning routine of setting the water over hot coals to boil it for tea, and then a morning of meditation and training. For fifty years I have trained to fight in Mortal Kombat. For fifty years I haven't aged a day since the defeat Shang Tsung.

This morning, the sun was still low over the horizon and the temple looked peaceful before anyone was out on their daily chores. I got up earlier and earlier each day to avoid them. My home is here, but my purpose is no longer to serve them.

Lord Liu Kang brought me back to Earthrealm after the death of the only woman I had loved. We had a child, a child I have yet to find. Probably had a child of his own somewhere. To watch her wither and curse you for your youth, despite my devotion, was heartbreaking enough. I had travelled to Outworld to seek out Shang Tsung, to offer myself to him, just for the chance to die. Lord Liu Kang saved me, and I had realized that this curse does not just pass. It must be passed on through Mortal Kombat.

My thoughts drifted with the sun. Kitana was a fair and just ruler of Outworld, and a dear friend. She upheld the tradition, but the tournament held little meaning now, other than to symbolize and hold respect for those that lost their lives and saved their realms before it. My battle with Shang Tsung was the last true tournament of Mortal Kombat before Kitana Kahn rose to power and defeated Shao Kahn for good.

How will the world end today?

As these moments of meditation pass like the many days and nights before it, I had come to see people born and die on a daily basis. Life for the lucky is just a thin and frail thing. You don't realize how fast it is until it's gone. You don't know how great it is to know you're just passing through, until you are forced to stay.

It is as though–

Someone is here.

My home by the White Lotus temple is small and modest. One room, a small alcove for a fire and food, and beyond that, it is all I've needed. There is no door, and so to see Lord Liu Kang stand at the threshold as I sip on this tea was most welcome.

It meant something important was about to happen.

Something I had waited fifty years for.

"The Great Kung Lao." He greeted me.

"Lord Liu Kang." As I had greeted him many times before.

"May I enter?" He was always welcome, but always asked.

"I was only meditating." He sat as I spoke to him and offered a tea, which he accepted kindly.

"The ship will arrive in Hong Kong in seven days. Have you prepared for your battle with Goro?"

"Your faith in me is strong to think I will reach Goro, Kitana's Shokan Prince."

"You defeated Shang Tsung, I have every reason to trust you will defeat Goro."

There was something in his voice that told me otherwise. I liked that something, I believed in it more than what he told me.

"You are trying to stack the tournament, Lord Liu Kang?" There was little reason to hide the truth, so I prodded. He had come later than anticipated. I would have been in Outworld by now had it been the last tournament.

"I have asked Raiden to enter with you."

"Raiden? He is a good fighter, perhaps he will defeat Goro." Raiden was a far better fighter than myself. He was trained by some unknown master long ago and has always had this innate ability in him that I could never match. He had history in his bones, and his combat showed.

"If one of you cannot, I trust the other will." There it was. He knew something about this tournament that I did not. Did it mean more to him to win this time than when I had defeated Shang Tsung?

"Are you that apt to defeat your former lover?"

There was a bit of ire brought out of him, but he played it calmly. "Kitana is not my concern. The victory of Mortal Kombat is. It is better to maintain Earthrealm's protections than to let it slip and allow a beast like Goro to go unchecked."

"When do we leave?" It was futile to fight it. Though the meaning behind the tournament was lost, just as the meaning behind my own life, the closer I was to that tournament, the closer I'd be to death.

"Now. Raiden is waiting for us in Hong Kong."

"May the Elder Gods be with us then, Lord Liu Kang."

All the while, I could only think with such apathy: We live in a universe, and the universe lives within us.


	11. Eleven - Ko'atal

**T**he Centaurian keep is no stable, but what gives them purpose to build them? To build these near impenetrable structures? What drives Motaro to rebel against Kitana Kahn? Is it her allegiances to the Shokan and Tarkatan, or the defeat of his former master Shao Kahn?

It is not particularly comforting nor assuring that I stand within these walls as a prisoner of my enemy, but this is the only way to understand them, the only means of finding those answers. Motaro knows more than he'll say, but it's not just words that speak truth.

Before we could speak, however, Motaro deemed it necessary to throw me into a cell, a sconce on the wall down the donjon hall as my own dim light. Unlike most towers, or donjons, The Centuars could not move through narrow pathways, so theirs was built underground. Beneath this fortress held at least five cells that I had counted, the largest of them reserved for me.

Each cell appeared to be something of a stable, but for prisoners. A hay bale is all I had to sit on and the darkness my only friend for hours before I could hear the hooves on patted dirt. The hall was wide, wide enough for two centaurs, incase one must turn their body.

"Motaro!" My hands clenched the rusted steel that stuck the door way of the stable.

"Ko'atal." He greeted me, arms folded, beard twisted like his gnarled horns and a grim grin stretched across his face.

"Must I be your prisoner as we speak? It is your scenario I accepted."

"We are to discuss your surrender, Ko'atal. A surrender that must be known throughout Outworld."

"Speak to me, Motaro. Why have we reached this point?"

"Kitana Kahn." His only answer? I cannot blame him for his anger, I seem to grow in my own for her, but Motaro and I were enemies well before Kitana rose to power. He was at the side of Shao Kahn after all.

"You were Shao Kahn's greatest general." Somewhat of a flattery, but their strength should not be taken lightly.

"You have mistaken me for Goro, and for a fool to be so flattered by your deceptions?"

"There is no deception to such a deadly alliance between Shao Kahn and the Centaurs. Yes, Goro was his right hand, but now he stands by Kitana, and did so eagerly, even before Shao Kahn fell in battle. Who still stands before us an agent of a dead Kahn? You."

"We do not serve dead emperors, Ko'atal."

"Who do you serve? The sorcerer that killed the Zetarran?"

"We serve no sorcerers either, Osh-Tekk scum." Must I pull his horns and teeth for information? He believed this would end with me stuck in this cell, but I will have none of that. His response infuriated me, but to get out, I must find a way through this conversation that would benefit us both. He spoke again, interrupted my desperate breath for information with exactly what I needed. "Shao Kahn may have been a cruel conquerer, but he was a warrior of the people, and he granted us land and freedom. Land and freedom swiftly challenged by Kitana as soon as we refused to swear fealty to her crown."

"It is freedom you want?"

"Isn't that what everyone wants? Freedom from oppression, a world without injustice, and a realm without the threat of annihilation?"

Fair enough. True enough. The centaurs were blood crazed under Shao Kahn, but they seem bitter under Kitana. Shao Kahn had forced Motaro's hand to battle in his many wars and no matter how much Motaro had succeeded, even where the Shokan, Osh-Tekk, and Tarkatan failed, it was Goro that stood tall and the Outworlder known as Reiko that would take credit.

Motaro, still, as a general of war could not be trusted with peace. He has killed and will kill again. Fighting is in his blood, but perhaps that is how I get out? Not a battle with Motaro, but a fight for freedom.

"As you know, General, a new tournament is soon to begin."

"The tournament of Mortal Kombat does not concern the centaurs."

"Perhaps this one will?" He wasn't amused, but I had accepted his scenario, now let us see if he accepts mine. "You wish for your people to be left alone, to be free, but I know you for I am you, Motaro, you must fight, and you must bleed, and you must strive for that final war your life has needed." I added, "you will never see peace, but perhaps your people can. Perhaps Motaro's legacy will be to free the centaurs from the Empress of Outworld."

"Do not deceive me, Ko'atal, you have no power in my prison to make deals and flattery."

"Then free me, and join at my side in the tournament. Together, we can overthrow Kitana and save Outworld, save our people."

"You would commit treason and crown yourself Kahnum of Outworld?"

"I would, but not without the Centaurs."

"We will not serve you."

"Not to fight for me, Motaro, but with me. You will free your people, and in my Outworld, you will be allowed freedom over the land you have already claimed. You will be left alone, but should the call to war come, it will be your choice to join it. I will not force your hand."

"This is a grandiose arrangement you are planning, Ko'atal, or should you prefer Kotal Kahn?"

"Grandiose, but futile without your help."

This moment between us took longer than I had expected. The centaurs may have been formed of prey, but they were smart. I could have rotted in this cell and Motaro would have defeated Kitana on his own should she dare march to the five keeps along the Centaur Hills, but that would not be the freedom and the peace he desired for his people.

Live your lives in battle and hide in your fortress for eternity, or fight one battle and see the world welcome you with open arms. There was no choice to be made.

"I accept your deal. I will fight beside you in Mortal Kombat," he added with deep resolve, "Kotal Kahn."


	12. Twelve - Skarlet

**T**he taste of metal was all that kept me alive. As well as the feel of my toes as they tapped on jagged stone, waded through the what felt like rocks or bone with each slow sway of my body, hung like a slave to auction. It told me I was still alive.

What is this place?

There was cloth bound around my eyes. Two loops and thick, like linen. I couldn't, even as I felt the heat of torches around me. It felt like I were a centerpiece, a work of art for someone, or something to muse over.

My father treated me like an object, and who ever is now, will bleed out just as he did.

"Do you feel pain?" A voice drowned the cackle and soft hiss of flames around me. This deep, almost guttural voice slightly echoed, which meant I was not in a small room. "Answer me, girl."

His presence felt strange, but yet all too familiar. I could feel his heat, and it burned my blood, but not with anger, but awe. The room settled in a dark haze that cascaded down my flesh as I could hear big leather boots take slow, long strides toward me, and his breath, fresh with meat and ale hovered at my cheeks.

"I inflict it!" I spat back, my lips chewed on between teeth, but I did not know the position I was truly in. Who was this? Where am I?

I could hear movement over the low cackle of fire, like he had his arms crossed, or tight, or wore something that rubbed against itself as he moved. I couldn't see, I couldn't tell, but I could hear a loud metallic thud as something was dropped, or perhaps hammered down with force. That sound was close, he was close, his breath invaded mine and I could taste him, his air, his flesh, his sweat. He had feasted, he had a woman recently, and now he had me.

"How much do you know of Blood Magic?" He asked.

"Nothing." He didn't believe me, and it sounded like he groaned with deception, but it was truth.

Earlier I had been attacked and dragged through the slums by this creature I could never hope to describe. Invisible, big, and claws like the great talons of the thunderbirds that fly seasonally toward the Sorcerer's Island.

"Do you wish to learn?" He grabbed my chin, his fingers gritty with dirt and slimy with meat still dripped from digit to digit. His hand didn't need answer from me, but they did climb the crevice of my maw and cheekbones to tear away the fabric that blinded me.

With my head aimed downward from my hung position, the first thing I saw was his chest. There was a leather strap from shoulder to underarm that nearly covered a giant gash that crossed from his left nipple to his right shoulder blade. It was nasty, but it had healed. As my eyes traveled upward, his hands saw my cheeks again and positioned me to stare him straight in the eyes. Red with almost bright glow that nearly blinded like the sun when you look into them for the first time.

He wore a mask, but it looked more like a skull. Stained in blood this mask looked like a mortal skull with metal and leather that connected the back and fanned out toward his shoulders, but cut right at the jaw line. This was the no mask, but the helm of a Kahnum.

"Shao Kahn."

"You will learn Blood Magic, you will be my weapon in the tournament." He was so sure of this, but did I have a choice? Do I ever? I loved the idea of learning this magic.

I was born in blood. Bathed in it, my body taken in it, and I've dined on it. Blood is who I am, and if this, the greatest Kahn to ever live will teach me all he knows? Well, why didn't you capture me sooner?

"What is your name, girl?" He let me go, but he was still close, his eyes scrutinized my every breath, every wrinkle, and every bit of eye movement.

"Skarlet."

"Then you will be my first daughter, Skarlet."

As I hung like a slave in a bone littered chamber, I couldn't help but think that this was the moment I had been waiting for. The moment my life may truly begin.


	13. Thirteen - Shao Kahn

**A **long time ago I had met a beautiful Goddess named Kitana. She met me in secret and she whispered wonderful things into my ear.

"You are the true Kahnum of Outworld."

"All the realms will kneel before you."

"Rise against Onaga, Shao Kahn, and I will give you the heads of the Elder Gods."

Such wonderful threats of romance and yet when I had finally slain Onaga on the night of a blood moon, she began to mobilize an army against me. It was not apparent at the time, but as the years progressed, my champions Shang Tsung, Goro, Reiko, and Baraka all seemed to distance themselves from me. Only Goro stood at my side when Kitana challenged my claim to the throne.

Not once did this Goddess join me in the conquering of the realms, but later, as the tournament to claim Earthrealm neared it's tenth victory, I had learned that Prince Goro of the Shokan were merely the eyes and ears of Kitana.

He betrayed me and aided in the defeat of Shang Tsung by mortal hands. Though not dead, he had disappeared into the cobalt mines until one day his strength would be restored and the tournament would near it's ugly head to grant him the opportunity to seek vengeance against Kung Lao.

That was Shang Tsung's fate, but mine? She had a different plan for me, the true Kahnum of Outworld, and Conquerer of the Realms.

Kitana had challenged me in Mortal Kombat, in my own realm. In front of my own throne. Sheeva, Baraka, Ko'atal, and the traitor Goro all watched on as we battled for supremacy. If it weren't for the fact that Kitana was a Goddess like the pathetic defender of Earthrealm, Lord Liu Kang, then I would have defeated her. If it weren't the aid of her allies, my armies would have defeated her!

Interestingly enough, if it weren't for the compassion that held within her Edenian heart, she would have killed me. Instead, we crashed through the palace, room by room we fought, and struggled for control over one another. In the end, she bested me and as I lay beneath her, and stared into the eyes of a traitor, of my murderer, she gashed my chest with razor sharp fans and nearly spilled my guts.

It takes more than a flesh wound to kill my kind. More than death itself to kill me, Shao Kahn!

She ordered Goro to take me to the donjon tower where I would rot, and had told Outworld that I was dead.

Shao Kahn was no more, and now they were under the rule of Kitana Kahn.

If it weren't for the kinship I had grown with Goro, albeit under the terms of my destruction, I would be dead. What little he cared for me, allowed Shang Tsung to free me from the cells that held all traitors to her crown. This secret, I presume, Goro kept with him, for no soul has found me since that tournament's end.

For that inkling of loyalty, I will spare only one of Goro's arms.

As I explained the story to my newest daughter, her thirst for knowledge and power unlike that of any creature beneath me and before her, I could see our plans made real. This girl, once strong in the art of Blood Magic, would enter the tournament for me, and I would join her, as would my other champions.

Kitana will know them all soon enough, and she will fall.

As the true Kahnum of Outworld, I will take my rightful place on that throne.

"Shao Kahn?" She broke my concentration, but for the best. She needed to be returned to her cell.

"Your hair," I had noticed as we began our training, "is beginning to turn blood red."

She seemed flattered by this and her cheeks turned rose colored. She inspected a few of those red strands that only frosted her hair. Soon her hair would be completely blood red as she consumed more and more blood from the victims we would feed her to grow in her abilities. A father would be so proud.

"Return to your cell, Skarlet." She, unlike some, listened.

This was a way to control her. Her only freedom would be to train and to kill. She would eat bound by chains, and she would sleep in her bondage. This magic, not even known to Shang Tsung, would surprise Kitana and anyone that dared to question my rule over Outworld again. My greatest weapon, Skarlet.

"Excuse me, Master." A pathetic throaty voice scratched at my ears.

With a hard glare down at the creature known as Syzoth, or Reptile to some, I grimaced, and clutched my hammer tight.

"The sorcerer wishes to speak with you."

"Then he may come himself."

"I will get him for you, master."

Syzoth took three cowardly steps back and then turned to flee and fetch my loyal sorcerer. Little did the pathetic whelp know that my sorcerer had brought me a scroll from the beast known as Khameleon several nights ago. I could not read what was written, and I couldn't give a damn too, but my sorcerer knows all languages.

"We are many." Spoken under my breath, both when I held the scroll and heard the words through my translator, and now as he stepped lightly into this dark, one-torch chamber.

These walls were carved beneath a single room hovel in the slums. Beneath it, no one would find us, and the Thieves Guild protected us above the surface. The few that dared venture underground were slain.

"What news of the surface?" He would have found out everything he could before he even dared to enter my presence.

"Kitana Kahn is moving forward with preparations to use the Coliseum for the Tournament. She has sent invites to the Tarkatans, Shokan, Osh-Tekk, and Edenians to fight in the tournament for Edenia and Outworld."

"Pathetic, but that was to be expected of her."

"Word on the wind, master, is that Osh-Tekk will not rise to her call."

This was good news indeed. How had Kitana destroyed such a strong alliance? "Speak to me, Shang Tsung, how much do you know of this new development?"

"I had spoken with Motaro myself before leaving. I had spotted the Osh-Tekk traveling across the hills to infiltrate the keep, no doubt to discover the truth behind the Kytinn attack."

"Has D'Vorah come through on her end?"

"As we speak, the Kytinn have halved the Osh-Tekk forces. Not just at the camp, but in Outworld itself."

"This is good news, Shang Tsung. You have done well to seek her out."

"They have nested deep within my island for centuries, it is about time they paid for it."

There was still the matter of Ko'atal. What convinced him to turn his back on Kitana, or did he? Is he dead? Did Motaro do as instructed? "What of Ko'atal?"

"When I left after getting the scroll from Khameleon, and informing the Centaurs of the Osh-Tekk outside their gates, Motaro took him captive. He assured me that Ko'atal would rot in a stable beneath the ground."

This was very good news. We needed the Centaurs. We needed the Kytinn. D'Vorah would enter the tournament with me, and Skarlet. Together the three of us would begin a new era in Outworld, and a new era of conquering the realms through Mortal Kombat. I would make Kitana eat her words, her promises to me and throw the heads of the Elder Gods at her lover's feet!

"There is, however, other news."

"What else, sorcerer?"

"I do not know what transpires on Earthrealm. I lost my right to be a free-roaming sorcerer after losing to Kung Lao, but my spiders have told me that it is not just the Great Kung Lao who will fight in Mortal Kombat."

"Who do you speak of?"

"Raiden is to enter the tournament."

"The great teacher and partner of Lord Liu Kang? So what if he does? We will crush his skull and feed him to his God!"

"Yes, my master. We will." He bowed slightly, with a pathetic grin that told me he knew more than he had told me of this. I had grown tired of him already and didn't need to hear any more. Raiden was mortal just like Kung Lao, and I was confident in our new army, in my new daughter. However, before the door would close on my golden robed sorcerer, I had one more loose end to tie.

"One more thing."

He turned, his eyes narrow with curiosity and his hands still tucked behind his back.

"What of the girl?"

"Mileena? The first trial failed" A sorcerer spoke only what he meant to. What information I got, were whispers and air through narrow teeth, but it was all I had to know of this girl. "I am building you another with the blood of your new daughter, once she truly begins training. Perhaps she will be a stronger fit."

"She will be, or you will join her in the grave."

"As you wish, my lord."


	14. Fourteen - Kung Lao

**R**ain drowned the shrine of my ancestors. Burdened with the weight of the tournament and the travel to my last so close, I had to visit them. I had to apologize them.

Down to my knees, a mantra to please, and the stone tablets glistened under the moonlight, and wavered through the reflection of the rain. It was like my ancestors watched me as I fell before them.

"I have brought dishonor upon the Kung family."

My father would glare down at me and strike me with his staff. He would hit me so hard it would make his ancestors dizzy. Number one in my class, extensive training under the Shaolin Monks of the White Lotus Society, and yet I watched my wife wither and leave me as old age took her. Our son disappeared with her, grown to a man I'll never meet, perhaps to have a son I'll never know. The Kung line would possibly die with me.

"Who is this man I see," my reflection stared back, aimless down a thousand mile line that swayed and swerved with the rain. "For fifty years I have lived to honor you, to prepare only for Mortal Kombat."

Set before them, my equipment for travel. Cloth to keep the sweat from my eyes. Leather braces, sent from the champion of Wales to the Western Kingdom. The dragon medallion, silver, and etched eons ago by the Elder Gods themselves. With this medallion I have survived for far too long.

Raiden would have no doubt prayed to his ancestors much as I had, but Lord Liu Kang chose him to go before me. No doubt he awaited me in Hong Kong when I could have already been there. What is it in Raiden, that Lord Liu Kang no longer sees in me?

Is this a sign of things to come?

"Ancestors, I pray to you, will I defeat Prince Goro?"

Fifty years ago, Lord Liu Kang had only just arrived into my life. It was unbelievable that a deity would have such interest in the champion of Mortal Kombat when never before had this happened, with exception of Kitana Kahn.

As a man, swift as thunder, and fierce as a raging fire, he guided informed me of my destiny to compete in this tournament fifty years before I knew it. I'd have gladly followed the current dynasty to war, or served the mongols, sat lazy like a monk beneath a false God, or here, a stone, with my ancestors.

"Father, you missed the day I left to honor Earthrealm and our ancestors by defeating the vile sorcerer Shang Tsung. With you in my heart, we ended the reign Outworld held over Earthrealm." A loss of breath, the formation of words, the stare at his tablet. Silence in my mind, but soon he would hear me, and I would hope he answered my voice. "I do not feel you anymore. Father, Grandfather, Mother. I feel nothing."

As the moment passed and my words left unanswered. No wisdom to be passed to me, no words of anger or dishonor from my ancestors. Just silence. Just nothing.

There are no spirits that watch Kung Lao, no Gods in the heavens, just mortal men in a universe too vast to understand. A speck of dust on a speck of dust.

We live in a universe, but it does not live within us.

As I turned away, ready to collect my things and take this apathetic journey to my eventual death or unending life, a cricket stopped my hands from the bracers. It was blue and stretched it's leg across its antenna to produce a strange noise. I watched it as it hopped again and landed on my father's tablet.

Before I could swipe it from the tablet, a black and yellow insect leapt for the bug and tore it in half. Once a lucky blue cricket, not a shell of ichor and death.

The yellow and black insect flew toward my face and buzzed with anger. It meant to harm me, but I had swatted it in the presence of my ancestors. As it fell against my Great Grandfather's tablet and crushed its wings, I inspected it further. A bulbous, mucus covered body and thin twig like wings that crunched and bent into the stone. The body fell wingless down to the last word etched into his tablet and I could see the pincer still tried to cut my flesh.

This was no normal insect. This was a hell beast from Outworld.

It amused me in the moment. This horrible sign. I could only hold in a laugh, so as not to dishonor my ancestors further, but how could I not muse further with the words of my former rival.

"It has begun."


	15. Fifteen - Kitana Kahn

"What would you do if you were at the edge of oblivion and all you dreamed about was gone, because everything you strived to become was something that could never exist?" Those words fell like fallen leaves, like hopes and dreams escalated just to be pushed off the palace walls.

"I would not mind being alone at the end of the world." A deep voice rumbled like the dull roar of a lion. His lungs filled the chambers of my halls, but he merely let out a casual breath. The power of a Shokan in even the most moot of opinions.

"I believed in everything. Everything Lord Raiden offered us. Everything Liu Kang told me could be real."

"Power is a terrible thing to waste on love." He was such a gem with his words, Goro.

"What is power with no one to rule?"

"All in your mind, and if you're alone, that's all that matters."

Goro had never felt love, not like I had. He had lovers, women he would bed, but never a woman. It wasn't about Liu Kang, it's not about one person, but the feelings that were had. You create something with another human being, male, female, Kytinn, it doesn't matter. All the promises and all the time spent just thrown away like this, but in this case, over the course of eons.

Honestly, the idea of love is nothing to me now and the idea of power is equally moot. There's no need for a hand in mine, when I have an army behind me, and no need for power, when I know that no matter what I do, evil and good will still shape the realms into the same thing it'll always be and become. My heart is moot, and our struggles are foolish.

So, though Goro may never understand, nor Baraka, or Jade, or anyone for that matter, I am Kahn of Outworld, not to rule them, but to assure my place in the amoral fabric of time.

I just am.

His palace was on an island far away from this, though it seemed more like he had lived underneath the palace Shang Tsung bathed in scores of women within. As Shang Tsung had a world of beauty and gold and power, Goro was forced to live in the same dwelling as the slaves and prisoners. Not under my rule.

My allies dined as one, and my generals all at my right hand. Their realms as protected as best I could, though evil will always triumph sometimes. This is the point of contention with the Fire God Liu Kang.

"He saw with Raiden's eyes. Apathy and tone-deaf to the realms around him. So consumed with his own power and ability to ignore it that I had no choice but to try to change him, to change reality."

Goro didn't answer. We sat together at the end of a long table with food that could feed the poor beneath us. Tomorrow it would, but I know Goro could eat scores of poor folk just in one sitting. I sat across from him, for though I was his Empress, he was still my equal. A ruler of the Shokan, a race far stronger than any Outworlder like Shao Kahn.

He dined on fat suckling pigs and feasted on large Moa birds taken from Earthrealm. He sucked and chewed and spat as the Shokan do, and I didn't mind. He was content, and if my people are happy, who am I to complain? Not everyone can be happy, but maybe everyone should find the time to see happiness in this inane moments of existence.

"The tournament is next week, Goro. Days away."

"Am I still bound by your laws of 'to the yield,' Kitana?"

This took me a moment. Shao Kahn had killed and Shang Tsung murdered, just as Goro and Baraka and their foul assassins and creatures from the filth and mires Outworld, but not me. There is no reason to conquer the realms, only to show superiority, to show sport.

However, my spies in Earthrealm had traced deception to the Centaurs. At what level, I do not know, but our rivalry continues when I had sent Ko'atal to end it in blood. There are rumors of the Kytinn making themselves known through Outworld again, and no doubt they have a plan to enter the tournament for mere chance of regain their power, and feasting on those that try to stop them.

This tournament, before it even began, had shaped into something much like the very first Mortal Kombat.

"No. You are free to kill if you please." This shocked him. His eyes raised from his plate of half skeletal remains to mine. I looked back into his with resolve. He knew what it meant.

"That is most appeasing, my Empress."

For a moment, I allowed him that joy of being the Goro he once was, but then reigned him back into the man I had molded him. "However, do not kill without reason. Do not kill without compassion. Do not kill without my permission."

This had a darker tone to it than I had anticipated my voice being able to convey. Yes, I would be there to oversee his battles, but it were only a few people I would like to see litter his feet with blood. D'Vorah, Motaro, should either be so bold to grace my Coliseum, and Raiden.

The greatest betrayer of my trust.

He could sense it in me. As blunt and abrasive as the Shokan looked and behaved, they could sense emotion much like any being could. They were sentient and self aware and loved, bleed, and cared and cried. Goro protected me from Shao Kahn, he would know me better than even Liu Kang, better than Jade.

"After billions of years, you still hate this Lord Raiden?"

"I loved him, Goro, like my own father. I had no father to grow up with, and now that I can see him, I cannot reveal who I am to him. Not even to my mother." This was the curse of being a Goddess. "Just because I could restart time, doesn't mean I could relive it. I am still Kitana, adopted daughter of Shao Kahn, forgotten Edenian princess, and sister to Mileena."

Everything from the past, though so long ago still seemed fresh. Liu Kang and I had chosen a point in time to travel to on many occasions. I begged him to change time, so much so that I realized that destiny and fate are as rebellious to change as teenagers craving it.

There was no more Kronika, no more Shinnok and Cetrion, no Geras but Blaze still existed. Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, Scorpion, all these horrible things still come to pass. At some point, I understood what Raiden told us about time and the power to shape it.

The realms must shape their own destiny, we are merely players in this great stage of life, but we are not the show itself.

Raiden, however, always had to stick his nose in that fact. Was it not Raiden that turned evil on all of us, let us all die and become Revenants? I had to fight myself just to free the realms from the insanity of Kronika and the Elder Gods. Was it not Raiden that decided Liu Kang would be the Fire God? My power and wisdom would have served much better alone.

Raiden was the one to scold us each time evil triumphed as if he thought it could be stopped.

"He let The Great Kung Lao die. He let everyone die." My thoughts became words as Goro stopped his loud chomping of anything that he deemed food. "That's why Liu and I chose this moment as our final pass. To stop Kung Lao from dying. To stop Shao Kahn from tainting Mortal Kombat, and to just live. Live our lives."

"And yet you are alone."

"Not truly, Goro." I added, "I have my friends and Outworld, and Edenia. What does Raiden have? Mortality? I aim to see him take Kung Lao's fate in this tournament. So, Goro, when you wish to kill, now you know who I mean to see dead."

Raiden ruined everything. I saw my future. I saw the end of Armageddon. I saved the realms from Shao Kahn. It took magic to see that, for we never reached that far in time, but Liu Kang had absorbed not just Raiden's power, but some of his memories. Liu Kang may forgive a traitor, but not I. Raiden betrayed me, cursed me with eternal life in an apathetic existence. Raiden blamed me for doing things he gladly, and with evil in his heart did without question.

Now, I will see him take Kung Lao's place in the tournament, just so I can see a God die.

"I wish show him fear in a handful of dust."


	16. Sixteen - Raiden

**1495**, in what would be become Hong Kong, currently under the rule of Imperial China, before colonization from Britain and eventual reconnection to China. This little business port is home to one of the few portals, or hellmouths in Earthrealm. Another is tucked away in what will become the new land, more specifically New York City.

These portals are the only means in historical times where a mystical convergence could arise to transport beings from one realm to another, whether they know it or not. There are only three in Earthrealm and every sorcerer or deity must find it on their own.

Ko'atal, Myself, and Shang Tsung are the only individuals known to have found these hellmouths.

Lord Liu Kang has yet to.

We descend into the height of the Ming Dynasty in this hub of travel and commerce, Lord Liu Kang, the Great Kung Lao and myself would all meet on of the ports, not like that of contemporary era, as this is the medieval period. Ships are not like Charon's and ports not quite like that of the Americas. What big ships there are will most likely be traveled by pirates, of which began in Japan, or mystical beings, such as the immortal Charon. His ship will take us to Outworld where Kitana and Prince Goro shall welcome us to challenge them in Mortal Kombat.

Around us rickshaws and horses, top knots and peasants all wandered and paved roads with their feet and primitive wheels as trade and life continued for them as it will until the 1800's. We waded through the crowds, denied rice and cloth, fabrics of silk and jewels of gold, artifacts and various items that could be sold for a nominal fee until we reached, what in China could be referred to as an Inn, or Tavern in England. It was easy to find vacancies in the presence of the Fire God, well known to very few loyal believers that have seen the ships of Charon before.

As I waited, my eyes locked into the ancient orbs of the innkeep's eyes, I watched Lord Liu Kang with Kung Lao as they made small talk. Kung Lao seemed different this time around. When first this scenario took place, I was the God of Thunder and Protector of Earthrealm. The Great Kung Lao was ready to serve his realm and fight for the freedom of its people. Now, however, it seemed that that resolve was yet to manifest in what would have been known as the Earthrealm's greatest champion, until the coming of Liu Kang.

"You must prepare, the battle ahead will not be easy." Lord Liu Kang imparted upon Kung Lao.

"I know what is to come. I know what I will do." Kung Lao returned, like a rebellious teenager that has heard it all before.

"Not what you will do, what you must do, Raiden, can you tell him?" This was odd. Liu Kang turned to me, a mere mortal to empower the Champion of Mortal Kombat? In my time, this would have been my task as God to ensure my fighters wills were strong, but it is not my task to do.

"You must understand this yourself, Lord Liu Kang, do you not?" To play the father to a God? Unheard of. "Remember your past."

"Yes, Kung Lao, as Raiden had said. Remember the tournament before this. The Realms at your finger tips and one misstep and they would be sucked into oblivion." He missed the point.

"There are no depths to fall into this time around, Lord Liu Kang. I fight at the amusement of the Elder Gods now." Kung Lao also missed the point.

As we were welcomed by a lady of service, she brought us to our rooms. One single room, the bamboo floor would be our bed, save for a stone to rest our heads on. Liu Kang would most likely meditate the night, whilst he kept guard over us, but now that very thought began to worry me.

Who were you just now?

It had been a long time, but I knew Kung Lao like a son, just as I knew Liu Kang. There was turmoil and sorrow behind those eyes. As a mortal, I could finally feel what it was like to empathize with him, and to feel human anger for Lord Liu Kang not realizing. Perhaps the power of being a deity is what stripped us of our baser human emotions?

"What plagues you, Kung Lao?" I spoke up, because Liu Kang wouldn't the boy that saved the world still trapped in his mortal recoil.

"I miss her, Raiden."

"Your wife?"

"Her, my child, my life before all of this." He added as he laid his back down onto the bamboo mat and let out a deep breath that seemed to have been held their since the start of our travel. "I am proud to have served Earthrealm. I am proud to have saved our people from the clutch of Shang Tsung, and the cruelty of Shao Kahn."

A quick glance, and Liu Kang had slid the door open to walk into the garden. He could still hear us, but I was disappointed he did not stay to understand that this was for him to be doing, not me.

"The tournament of life, Mortal Kombat, is also a burden. The greatest burden that anyone could be asked to place on their shoulders." I explained, "though it does not strip you of your human needs, and emotions, it strips you of what tethered you to them. Champions have loved and lost too, countless other champions before you. The duty to Earthrealm is greater than our mortal desires, but that does not diminish those desires."

"How do you live when life itself has been stripped away from you?"

"You chose to fight in the tournament and it was your heart that got you through to the end. Only you can decide your fate, Kung Lao. You have the freedom to meet your destiny, or let it sail." His eyes opened like portals to my wisdom, but how he would act on it is up to him. It did feel good to console him, but again, as mortal, this was not my job to do. "In the past a God would be here for you, to guide you and lead you down the path you choose and support you every step of the way. The Gods cannot save you, Kung Lao, but they would be there to lift you up should you fall. I will be here for you, as best I can, and Lord Liu–"

He stopped me there, "Lord Liu Kang is not here, Raiden. He drinks down the hall."

I could hear Liu's laughter and that of the resident Geisha and disappointment filled me again. My eyes closed, head downcast, but then raised with strength and certainty. Liu Kang had chosen only two fighters to represent Earthrealm in Mortal Kombat. I had previously chosen five, only Kung Lao made it.

Is he so certain that history won't repeat itself, or does he have other plans in mind?

"Even the Gods cannot take this seriously." Kung Lao laid back again and covered his eyes as though he were drunk. "I am going to sleep, Raiden."

"We will talk in the morning, Kung Lao."

It was time for a one on one with the chosen one.

Outside the inn you could see the port, the rocks and sands of the sea and the lights of villagers and merchants that speckled the landscape until mountains rose in the distance where the rice fields would dance down the sides of those elegant structures. Liu Kang took the sight in just as I had many years ago. Sake to warm his Godly heart, and fire to burn with strength within him, but reason tossed from the rickshaw.

"Lord Liu Kang." I bowed as it was customer for a deity.

He did not like that.

"Please, Raiden, you do not have to bow before me."

"You are a God, Liu Kang. I am a mortal, it is what we do in the presence of a higher power. Have you forgotten yourself?"

"We are like family, old friend. You bow to no one."

As a deity, I'd've shown my power, even the slight twitch of electricity in the whites of my eyes to reveal that, no, Liu Kang, we are not family.

A point had to be made. "This very day in the original timeline, I had ten champions with me. Seven men, and three woman that journeyed with me to compete in Mortal Kombat. You bring two."

As his maw gaped to speak, a large insect flew at him. The Fire God swatted it with ease, but then more came. Two, three, suddenly a swarm of black and yellow insects that nipped at us and buzzed with hatred.

They launched off of us into a formation that seemed humanoid in form. The serene garden of the inn now a horror scene as D'Vorah made her presence known. She was black, yellow, hard like rock and vile like the evil she spewed from her carnivorous maw.

"This one will make sure neither of you reach Outworld!" She threatened and then lunged into the air toward Liu Kang.

Four long, wiry legs branched out from her back and retracted as she leapt, then crunch inward to trap Liu Kang, but he vanished into a whirl of flame. Her eyes met mine and I prepared to battle.

"This one will make short work of you."

As she lunged forth, her legs sprawled out, ready to impale my sides and curl me into her to spin and web, a gust danced beneath her and the sakura trees themselves lend aid through their fallen petals that now swung like blades and held her in its grasp, like a giant's hand that tossed her to back and forth within the tornado.

A boot beat toward the carapace of her right breast and the familiar form of Fujin, God of Wind, Protector of Earthrealm began to dance in combat with D'Vorah. Another, however, formed beside me. A familiar face indeed, but it took me a moment to remember.

Shujinko.

He was young, almost as young as Liu Kang when I first met him, of whom had now joined the fight and encapsulated D'Vorah into a whirlwind of fire. The Gods danced as the demon insect screamed. She made a final effort as I could see the fire lick at her thorax and one last swipe of her legs to Fujin so that her wings could carry her above the tornado.

She succeeded and the swarm quickly parted from her body and fled into the darkness of the night.

As quickly as she had come, she was gone. Kung Lao ran to the scene, barely dressed in just his duduo.

"Lord Liu Kang, what is going on out here?" He was baffled.

"A reason to fight." I took it upon myself to reply for Liu Kang lowered himself to Earth with Fujin at his side.

Fujin greeted me as an old friend, little did he know just how old of friends we were. It was good to see him, and good to see Liu Kang take action, but it was clear to me now that I had begun to get in the way of my young student. He needed to lead. He needed to stand on his own. Fujin may help with this now that he is here.

However, so is Shujinko.

"Master Fujin, was that the Kytinn?" He asked the God of Wind.

"Raiden, let us have some tea." Fujin replied.

An hour had progressed and in the room of the village's finest entertainment, a singer from the deeper in the country. To the untrained ear, this young girl sounded more like a cat that howled for its food than a beautiful song of China's great history. To the untrained ear.

At last as the final notes peaked and the song of our Dynasty ended, she bowed low and began to pour our drinks. She recognized Fujin and Lord Liu Kang. They were frequenters here, it seemed. She knew them as Gods.

"It is good to see you again, Lord Liu Kang." He nodded.

"And you, Lord Fujin. What brings you Hong Kong?" Liu Kang still used that name, unable to let go of the past for the current history. It would not yet be Hong Kong, but the young girl followed along when she referenced the village.

"Mortal Kombat is upon us. I have found a Earth Realmer willing and ready to fight for the safety of the realm."

"What is your name?" Liu Kang knew full well who this was.

"I am called Shujinko, Lord Liu Kang." He bowed.

Oblivious to history, Kung Lao introduced himself, but Liu Kang and I shared a glance, not unnoticed by Fujin.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Only that we were attacked by a Kytinn and in the nick of time saved by you, Fujin." Liu Kang deflected our glance to his.

"Luck. However, it is still concerning. This did not happen before." I had spoken out turn. Fujin had no part in this, but I had hinted of knowing something I should not have. To save, I had added, "fifty years ago, when I took members of the White Lotus Society that wished to fight in the tournament, the Kytinn seemed extinct."

"They show resilience." Fujin explained.

"But never work alone." I had added. "What do you believe, Shujinko?"

"I cannot say, Raiden. I am merely here to assist in the tournament at Fujin's behest." After these words spoken by Shujinko, I leaned a grim glance over to Liu Kang, and then a blanker expression to Fujin.

He looked out to the sea tucked between the open door and took in the scent of the wind.

"I have sensed something sinister in the wind, Raiden. I do not think D'Vorah is the only one who will try to interfere with Earthrealm's involvement."

Liu Kang absorbed all of this. Normally he would have understood his place. He would fight for Earthrealm, and likely win, but now he was in a position where he could not fight at all once we reached Outworld. Still, no response was worse, I feared.

No response is what we got.

Who will save Earthrealm now?


	17. Seventeen - Shang Tsung

**D**ay One-Hundred.

Every day I have locked myself away in my studies, in the mortal coil I promised to untangle and form something better for the future of Outworld.

Creation does not take seven days and I do not believe the Gods worthy enough, nor creative enough to make such a creature as I have tediously worked on.

"Mileena" he named her. A girl that would suit as his rightful heir and daughter.

In Outworld, beings grew slowly and over a long course of time into adulthood, but on Earthrealm it was quicker. Still, as quick as they grew, it was too slow for what I had in mind to make. She must be fighting ready, and we only had days.

Magic and souls of warriors that burrowed and coursed through my veins would serve as the catalyst to my science. That is the spark that will breathe life and purpose into this girl.

First, however, she needed a mother.

It is on this day we found that host. A young girl that looked she could be sixteen, or seventeen on Earthrealm, vastly older in Outworld, but her power is ancient even more so than Shao Kahn and the Dragon King.

This girl, Skarlet, has an innate ability to draw power from Blood Magic. It is a skill not many have, and is often something that must be learned, or imbued through magic itself. It is likely she has had someone in her bloodline with that ability, passed on through genetics.

She had no idea how to wield it, or even that it was present in her body memory. However, over a short period of time she will learn from Shao Kahn to harness this ability. Couple that with her raw talent for survival, she will learn to fight, and the souls of warriors I have consumed will serve to weaponize her for the tournament.

With this young girl's blood, I will be able to forge a new daughter for Shao Kahn. A girl with a Kahn's blood, the innate ability to wield Blood Magic, and mix that with the fierceness of Tarkatan dna and the creature I aim to create will be so terrible, the Gods themselves with quiver with fear.

Day One-Hundred-Three

Skarlet has been an incredibly suitable student and match for Shao Kahn and my study. It is clear the girl was beaten and abused, mentally, physically, sexually all throughout her life. She knows nothing but pain, suffering, hatred, and blood. This concoction of destruction has allowed her to survive Shao Kahn's training so far. We are only three days in and she has grasped more of her power than most that simply pick it up from a sorcerer.

Her blood has provided positive results in the lab as well. It is absolutely boiling with promise. I have begun the construction of a new Mileena. She will be born into the body of what an Earth Realmer would consider a twelve year old girl. Magic allows me to age them where Shao Kahn desires. He wished for a young daughter that he could raise, but not a babe.

I have worked tirelessly in my lab. Science, Magic, and my own blood and sweat has gone into creating this masterpiece for my master. Though failure has marred my record with him after losing to Kung Lao, Mileena will be my greatest triumph and solidify my spot at his side when we kill Kitana and take Outworld back.

The first step, however, is to awaken this girl. Her body is finished. Her lips pursed between jagged teeth, a beauty and yet a terror all the same. Her flesh, nubile and young, but brimming with sensitivity to the magic Skarlet draws so easily. I believe she will open her eyes today, for I have filled her head with souls of warriors to grant her a start for becoming a deadly weapon. She will have to learn fast, but her body will be able to pick it up.

She just needs to open her eyes.

Day One-Hundred-Five.

Mileena, horrified at the very sight of herself, has denounced me, her own creator. Shao Kahn has beaten her already and Skarlet mothered her. She knows what this girl's purpose is as it is the same as herself. These women will know their place.

In her anger she her power has grown, raw and untamed. She is a wild animal. Not unlike her mother and the Tarkatans.

Today, Skarlet threatened to draw every last ounce of blood in me for having created Mileena to suffer. If it weren't for Shao Kahn, she very nearly would have.

I will keep myself locked away in my lab perfecting my projects and doing as Shao Kahn asked to focus on Mileena and Skarlet's progression before the tournament.

Only days away.

Day One-Hundred-Six

I will end Shao Kahn. I will kill Mileena like the fifteen before her. I will not be your slave, nor work solely on your pet projects! I am a sorcerer, and because Shao Kahn was so easily defeated by Kitana have I been stripped of my right as a free roaming sorcerer.

Skarlet has grown to hate me, just as Mileena has. Shao Kahn finds it amusing, but these girls do not realize that I aided in their creation. I am the true father, through science, of Mileena, not Shao Kahn, and I am the one that told Syzoth to capture Skarlet. If it weren't for me, she would still be a wild girl in Outworld, or devoured by Syzoth, should I have given him the order.

Just wait until the tournament, Shao Kahn.

And now for a taste of things to come...


	18. Eighteen - Skarlet

**T**he present is too fast. Anticipation has killed us. It seemed too long ago, but only days since I was captured and enslaved by Shao Kahn. Though he may have treated me better than my captor, and the vile villain Shang Tsung, I've always planned in my head that one day, I would betray Shao Kahn if need be. Not before I have perfected Blood Magic.

This was supposed to be about the tournament, but it has all spiraled so violently out of control. The hovel above, barely able to contain the vitriol beneath it, let alone hide them. The traitors to the crown.

After only five days left to rot in a dirt cell, except for when Shao Kahn would draw me out to teach me the most vile of magic, I had discovered that the sorcerer Shang Tsung had used my blood to form a creature against her will, against mine, that would serve as a true daughter to Shao Kahn.

Confronted, the true Kahnum of Outworld was very deceptive, I'd even say honest if it weren't for my years of abuse that put any word spoken into question.

That day, the day I learned of my sister, he entered my chamber, which was only five by five of dirt and wood and steel. My wrists bruised and and writhed under chains. My mouth gagged in old cloth that, the previous night, was used to cover my eyes, after the night before then, used to bind my feet when I would kick.

"I have a special lesson for you today." He told me and then removed my bonds for the last time, which I had not realized until I saw what he meant.

The underground channels carved out by his servant Syzoth, and the followers of the true Kahn that still remained in Outworld, did not leave much room for habitation. Two cells, a ten by ten room for Shao Kahn, and then beneath even that, a ten by ten for Shang Tsung, which he used as his laboratory. Shang Tsung did not need to live underground, as people knew him well enough as the loser of Mortal Kombat, but his secrets remained beneath the ground.

Time was foreign concept under Shao Kahn's capture. When there was no light but torchlight, it could have been day or night and I would have never known. He told me that Shang Tsung had been working day and night, for almost a year to create a daughter for him. A daughter with his blood, a Kahn's blood, but also mine.

This revelation was met with instant disgust. Not at the idea of a man in need of family, but that he had used me, abused me like my own family. It was all too familiar to me, but I had to see this through. There was no other choice.

Inside, I began to plot ways to make Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn's life miserable. They would suffer for this, but then I met her.

Her name was Mileena. For a creature born over the course of five days she didn't look much younger than me. In earth years, you might consider her twelve. She had my long black hair, and otherwise pale complexion should I have been locked away in a dark cell for a week.

Shao Kahn introduced her with a veil over her face, so that you could not see her lips or jawline. It was like a pink mask that I thought was meant to make her look regal, rather than ragged. She had my eyes, and fortunately my body, rather than the jagged flesh and gender of the Kahn himself.

Shao Kahn would not stand for a replacement to the throne, no, he couldn't bear to have a boy challenge him later in life like he had with Onaga. He needed a girl, a princess, a paper heir to the throne.

Chauvinist pig.

She couldn't speak at first. Of course she couldn't, Mileena didn't have speech. She was newborn and though agile, lacked muscle memory, and though beautiful, lacked grace. It wasn't until she removed her veil in her first bit of defiance against Shang Tsung, who it seemed she despised, did I realize why she could not speak.

She had my lips, pale and childlike, but they would grow womanly and perfect. However, a row of grotesque fangs, a wiry maw of dissonance and horror scratched across from those two beautiful lines very nearly to her ears.

It was the moment I saw her tarkatan blood that I had decided to kill Shang Tsung. First, I would torture him. Every single day. Every moment he is asleep and awake, I would destroy his life and he would wish he had been slain in Mortal Kombat. His had tortured and desecrated this innocent child with the blood of a monster.

It was difficult not to hide my contempt and disgust. He could see it, and so could Shao Kahn, though he seemed rather proud of this vile creation of science and magic.

She came to me, and I took her under my wing. She was me. We were sisters in blood and together, though our life purpose would be to destroy and kill, I would ensure she had the best life I could give her. If Shao Kahn was victorious, she would be his right hand, and if he did not, then we would escape and I would take her anywhere she pleased. Anywhere but here.

That night she saw herself for the first time.

I had taken it upon myself to escape the tunnels. There was one that attached to a warehouse held by the local Thieves Guild, worshippers of the true Kahnum of Outworld. It was connected to the entrance of the hovel that burrowed down fifteen feet and then branched off in two directions. It didn't take much to convince Syzoth to take us down the path to the warehouse.

A coward by nature, Syzoth could easily be threatened, or bribed. In my anger, I had begun to drain his blood and the power it gave me nearly intoxicated me to the point of no return. His blood was sour and old, ancient sniveling mucus that I would have woken up with the worst hang over had I kept it. Having finally seen the progression of my power, and the ferocity of my anger, he pledged his life to me and his loyalty.

With this in hand, I took Mileena from this gross groveling cretin of malcontent and fled to the warehouse. Above, or "upworld" as she called it, the entry way was just a wooden staircase built into the earth that lead to a door that opened into the warehouse. It was more of just a big building, some boxes, crates, barrels and cloth, however, the building itself was locked with magic. No one in, no one out.

Her voice, though she sounded vaguely like myself, should have filled my mouth with sharp rocks, started to form words taught to her by Shang Tsung and I. He didn't believe she needed much to learn, but I would teach her everything. She couldn't say much, and what she did, was not well spoken.

"What now?" I interpreted from her.

The building was big compared to the others around it. A sturdy twelve feet. There were windows near the top, covered in dirt and muck, grime, anything you could hide the inside with. One, however, only had cloth over it and the dirt was caked dry and easy to wipe. Together we pulled the crates and boxes together into a small staircase. There we would sit and watch the two moons rise over Outworld. There, she would see her reflection in the glass. Faint and nearly concealed by the moon, she had the same look of horror that I had when I first saw her, but I could hide it better.

That night I heard her scream. Guttural and painful. Her tears traced conical and curved teeth alike. She was a monstrosity and she knew it.

"Listen to me," I stopped her, "it was Shang Tsung that did this to you." After a pause, to try and hear her words, but between sobs and anger could not be interpreted, I continued, "we will make him pay for what he did to you. Together. Sisters."

The tournament was the next day. Finally a sense of time had come back to me. Since that night, I had also begun to mercilessly torture Shang Tsung. At first Shao Kahn would punish me. He beat me for the night I let Mileena see herself. He beat me, because I would not let him touch her. No one would touch her.

It was the night I let Shao Kahn break me, but after that he accepted my torture. He began to love it really fast. There was not a waking moment that Shang Tsung did not regret his actions and he lived the vitriol I spewed, and the hatred in my actions. Shang Tsung had failed him once, but I hadn't yet. How quickly things change for those that don't expect it.

On one such occasion, when I had learned Shang Tsung came to the tunnels as the sun would rise on tournament day, he came prepared with a silk changshan he had made for the tournament itself. It would be an insult to Kitana with Edenian embroidery and carefully stitched by an Edenian seamstress. It would symbolize that though he had lost the tournament to claim Edenia, he was still powerful enough to control her people. Something like that, I'm sure he said.

When he rested it in his laboratory, and left to greet Shao Kahn with a low bow, fealty, and praise, Mileena retrieved it with the aid of Syzoth and between those jagged fangs, tore it to shreds and together presented it before Shang Tsung, as he bowed to Shao Kahn.

"What will you wear now, sorcerer? Nothing, like the man that beat you?" I spat upon him and watched as his horror was reflected in the sundown of my blank stare.

"Insolent fool, I–" Shao Kahn stopped him mid breath, and praised this act of terrorism.

Shang Tsung loved his riches and spoils. I will destroy all of it.

I will destroy him.

The morning of the tournament, the mood was different. We were all as one as we exited. The mere sight Shang Tsung was enough to send ripples through the crowds that ran through the streets toward the Coliseum, but to see Shao Kahn alive? Whispers became roars and the air electrified. We could have hidden ourselves, but Shao Kahn wanted to make an impact where it mattered most, with the lower people of the city beyond the Coliseum. The people that followed him before Kitana committed treason. They were his people. Blind faith and sheer ignorance of the world around them, but they knew change.

Change had come for Outworld.


	19. Nineteen - Kitana

**M**ost people don't really believe you'll see your lost loved ones again after they die. Our bodies become shells that rot in the ground, and the time between us grows. No one has had to live to see their parents twice.

That was both a blessing and a curse. When Raiden granted Liu Kang the power of Godhood, and in turn extended that toward me to spend the eons, I knew it meant Sindel and King Jerrod, mom and dad, would be alive again, some where in time.

What I had not anticipated was that they would have no clue who I was. I was a complete stranger to them and, honestly, them to me.

It was a baby that was taken by Shao Kahn, and my mother died before I even learned to walk. When she came back, she was nothing more than a revenant and she killed me.

Strange, in one timeline we would have been united in death, gone, but together. In this, she reveres me as a Goddess and has named myself after myself. The younger Kitana has rarely met me, for I did not truly belong in Edenia. Even as I had saved it from Shao Kahn in this timeline, it was merely to just save my parents.

So, the look in her eyes when she stares back at me is that of a worshipper to a Goddess. Kitana the deity of Edenia and ruler of Outworld. We didn't get to play in the fields back at home, she never taught me what it was like to be princess, to be fair. My father never taught me to hunt, or rule the kingdoms in his stead.

Still, I gaze back, with the love of a child for her mother. A smile to welcome her and arms to let her know she is safe in them.

"It has been too long, Queen Sindel." We met at the great hall that lead to my private chambers.

She bowed, as a worshipper would, "Goddess."

"Who have you brought from Edenia to fight at your side?" The hall was still long, but the sun shined brightly between those pearly pillars, a good place for a walk and talk.

"Tanya, Rain, and of course, your guardian Jade." She added, before I could comment, "and the Outworlder, Bo' Rai Cho"

"A wonderful selection, mothe– Queen Sindel." It is still hard not to say it.

"Bo' Rai Cho has been most patient with training them all, but we will succeed."

At the large portal doors down three more halls that lead up the coliseum palace stair case, where the entertainment could be seen with relative safety, we were greeted by three of my trusted handmaidens. One, a tarkatan, another a shokan, and the third an outworlder.

Sindel did her best to tolerate the presence of my wonderful Tarkatan handmade, with her own beauty but, to be honest, when her face was covered by a veil, she reminded me too much of Mileena. A face I had wished to never see again.

At the edge of my Kahnum sized bed, covered in furs and clothes of linen, and earthrealm silks embroidered by the finest women of the growing Japanese empire, we sat together and allowed the maids to tend to us.

The opening ceremony would begin as the sun machine would come up and this tournament will be everything my mother desires.

"Kitana Kahn!" Jade intruded.

Anyone else would have been stopped by guards well before they reached the great hall. Jade was allowed to move freely. She would never betray me.

I had hoped.

Her eyes were locked on mine, posture stressed and itched to move, but she held herself until I got up and responded.

"What is it?" Sindel joined me, our voices almost the same as they spoke in unison.

"An army approaches from the Centaur Hills, and–" I didn't give her a chance to finish.

"That'll be all ladies." The maids were dismissed, it was time to be a Kahn.

There were four gates into the Coliseum. Two private entrances for the Kahn and guests, then a private one for prisoners. The other two were opened for the public to fill their seats and combatants to enter the field of battle.

Today, the seats would be full, something not seen for generations of Mortal Kombat.

There were words of Ko'atal having returned from his journey, and joy filled me, or so I thought, but as I had climbed onto the staircase that lead to the Kahn's entrance and those great wooden portals pushed open, I saw a terrible sight across the field.

At the center of the field a large throne had been erected for me to sit and watch center-stage to oversee the fights. On that throne someone sat and passed chants amongst the crowd.

The crowd erupted in chants for "Kotal Kahn!" The centaurs marched as an army beside him, Motaro at the forefront.

Ko'atal had returned.

Traitor.

"What is the meaning of this?" I marched out, but as my foot hit the desert sand of the field, the combatant's portal broke open and the wood splintered. A massive metal hammer crashed through and all eyes turned toward Shao Kahn, his own army behind him.

What an opening ceremony.

No one was more surprised than Ko'atal to see Shao Kahn alive. I had known, but did not realize he had been freed. Had he been hidden within Coliseum's city this whole time?

"Jade?" There were no answers in her eyes, but she knew something I didn't. She may as well make herself useful. "Get Goro, Sheeva, Baraka, Kintaro, hell, get all of my champions. We start this now."

She wouldn't.

It wasn't easy to notice across the field, but at Motaro's side, Kotal Kahn stood with Rain, Tanya, and my Father King Jerrod.

"I am sorry, Kitana." Sindel spoke, her head low. "You have become twisted by corruption, and your actions have seemed closer to Shao Kahn as of late than that of an Edenian." She broke my heart with her voice, "Edenia will not fight at your side in this tournament."

"Mother?" It had to come out. Those words, spoken by her? She didn't understand, no one could.

As Sindel parted from me, so did Jade, but she turned, her eyes seemed disgusted and heartbroken all the same, her words choked on my sin, despite my sincerity, "you let Shao Kahn live?"

"I imprisoned him!" To beg reason in this moment would not work.

"You have betrayed us. Betrayed Outworld."

They don't understand!

He had to live to save us from Onaga.

He could not be killed. The scar across his chest would show that I had tried, but just his presence alone meant more these people that I had betrayed them than the efforts to act on my lies.

In this moment, my heart and body sank. Was I so rugged and naive to think I could touch the very soul of holding every bit of life that meant more to me than my own? All these strings I've tugged on now cut loose from me, or is there a way to earn them back?

Kotal Kahn is a great Kahn of Outworld, I know, I would have given it to him if I could. However, he could not protect us from Onaga, or the Elder Gods, nor another great evil like Kronika. The reason I've held so stubbornly to this throne was to stop those evils that Liu Kang refused to get involved with.

What will it take to pass bliss amongst the crowd and allow me to walk across this field unchained?

Victory over Mortal Kombat?

"Kitana?" Goro touched my shoulder and I felt relief for the first time in what felt like forever. He was here for me. Sheeva at my other side and Baraka behind me.

"Goro, Sheeva, Kintaro, Baraka, I will be changing the rules this time around. Be ready."

"Anything, My Kahnum." Sheeva, ever loyal.

This would be the greatest tournament the realms had ever seen.

It will be the last.


	20. Twenty - Raiden

**C**hildren ran through the streets with smiles and wooden swords. Banners for their favorite realms and champions. Gongs and horns, strings and wooden flutes. The children of the summer spring would gather on the hot seats, rest on their hands and watch the tournament. The fighters, our spirit would touch their souls, it wouldn't, but it will seem that way.

Oh, to have memories of a free festival.

To capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon when Kung Lao defeated Shang Tsung and saved Earthrealm. Imagine all of the mountains, the highest highs man has pushed beyond their brains. That was Mortal Kombat. A festival of life, and a festival under ivory clouds that would change the course of the realms.

This would not be that festival.

Liu Kang at my side, Shujinko beside me to my right, where he better stay. Fujin and my old friend Bo' Rai Cho behind us, we marched onto the field as the opening ceremony began.

So few champions this time around, knowing that Fujin and Liu Kang could not compete. Bo' Rai Cho competed for Outworld, he had no choice.

Inside, Kitana Kahn had already begun her speech to greet the crowds. Amongst the combatants, it needed to be noted was Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung.

"Look over there." Nudged to look, Liu Kang locked gazed with them and then back at Kitana. There was nothing to be done now about this, but I could feel it already that the stakes had been raised and regret started to settle inside of his heart. We were not ready for this.

"What do we do, Raiden?" He asked, eyes on the Kahn.

"We defeat them in Mortal Kombat. They are as much Kitana's enemies as ours. In that commonality we will work together to rid of them once and for all."

"Shang Tsung." Kung Lao spotted his rival.

It felt strange to be around Kung Lao this time. In the first timeline, though he longed to return to the mortal coil, he was proud to fight for Earthrealm. He was proud to give his life for the realm. I was there to guide him every step of the way. Have I wasted me time with Liu Kang, only to neglect The Great Kung Lao?

Too much happened at once.

Dances, speeches, and cursed all of it and more happened before our eyes when all we desired was to compete and leave.

The rules had changed as well.

The first round would be to the yield. The second to the death. This, she explained, would be a saving grace to competitors too cowardly or unsure of the spirit in them to compete for their realms and give them the chance to battle without the threat of death. A whimsical reason. There was something else in her voice that suggested a more sinister plot.

However, this would be perfect for the new, sudden plan of needing to get rid of Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung before. They cannot be allowed to live.

"When do we begin, Raiden?" Shujinko would be among the body count, if I can help it. He looked at me with eyes he believed to be innocent. Perhaps he was just a pawn the whole time, but his part in all this must stop if Onaga is to be crushed in one fell swoop.

"No matter your feelings for Kitana, this is our only chance to be rid of Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, and Onaga."

That last one caught him off guard. He turned toward me, but before even another word could be exchanged, a swarm of Kytinn filled the Coliseum.

At center stage, D'Vorah and three hooded figures.

"Who do you fight for?" Kitana addressed them. A question she had asked of us all.

"This one fights for the one true Kahn." D'Vorah spat.

The four of them made a display to bow before Kitana Kahn. Did she truly mean to fight for Outworld? A quick glance across the field in the mess of combatants, the now self proclaimed Kahnum of Outworld, Kotal Kahn was visibly upset by this display. His great sword out and ready to strike. It took Motaro and Jade to hold him back, but it was not D'Vorah he looked to be after.

What has transpired in Outworld since the last tournament?

The first fight was Kung Lao against Bo' Rai Cho. A safe fight for them both. It would be a pleasant match to enjoy, but there was no room for fun here. I would see Kitana immediately.

Beneath the seats were hall ways that combatants and guards could use to get from one gate to another with ease. Liu Kang and I had chosen to speed our way to Kitana's personal entrance. Here we would wait as she oversaw the first match, as is custom.

There, however, in the shadows just before a great white cast of light beamed down against the first door, leaned a familiar face. Shang Tsung.

Adorned in just boots and breeches, wraps on his wrists and youthful presence, he greeted us with a sinister grin.

"Raiden, Lord Liu Kang." He bowed before Liu Kang, having known him instead of me this time around. If only he knew what Liu Kang had done to him the first time around.

"We do not have time for your filth." One step forward, he would not let me pass. He looked to the God among us.

"I would ask time of the protector of Earthrealm, not his lowly sycophants." He struck a nerve, but it had already hardened before his words could hurt.

"What ever you say in front of me, can be said with Raiden present." Liu Kang, again, refused to rise to the occasion, but as they stared, I took a glance to notice that Kitana had left her throne. She headed this way with Goro as her guard.

"It is fine, Liu Kang. You do not need me." This was my chance to push him out into the world, and myself out into the path of a great and powerful Shokan. "Kitana Kahn, if I may."

"You may not!" Goro's great three fingered hand pushed me into the structure of the bleachers. This mortal body would have broken in half had he meant to in that otherwise delicate shove.

It was in her eyes. Hatred. For me? For Liu Kang?

"Please, forgive me," I begged, as though it were for me, "please allow me to redeem myself with just a moment of your time."

She swung around, annoyed, undesired of this attention but after a cold blank stare, agreed. Shang Tsung had retreated to the shadows, undetected by the Kahnum, and Liu Kang dare not approach his ex just yet. One day he will have the strength to.

"You have until the end of the next fight, Raiden. It is Jade against the Kollector. It will be quick." She looked hurt, proud, destroyed, held together, all so much she tried to be in one glance. Perhaps she was as troubled as I in this moment. This would definitely be a delicate discussion if so.

Outside the walls, Kollector charged the smaller Edenian. To the yield, weapons were not allowed, but Kollector had six. His arms. Still, I had confidence in Jade, but not in the strength of her Kahn.

"I promise to keep it brief." With a bow, I followed her into the great hall.

With the closing of the doors, Goro lifted me and tossed me to the floor with enough strength to bruise the left side of my ribs. The floor was paved in stone. Kitana stepped elegantly, but with seething hatred toward her former friend, and I was lifted to my feet, then shoved into the wide stone pillar that may as well have been as hard as Goro's chest.

"You screwed everything up, Lord Raiden!" She was still the same Kitana.

"Forgive me!" So, the hatred was for me.

Goro folded his arms and watched on as she stood back and spit filth, "you foul cretin. Did you know what you had done to Liu and I?"

"I did not break the two of you up."

"Not that, have you had to live to see your mother betray you when all you wished for was to be at her side?"

"No."

"To be forced out of your home because, as a God, you have none? I wanted to grow up in Edenia, to be my mother's daughter, my father's daughter. You took that from me."

"I did not, Kitana. You accepted Liu Kang's offer to join him as Gods."

"Maybe, Raiden, but no matter how much we altered time, he became more and more apathetic to the evil I have worked so hard to destroy."

"Evil cannot be killed, Kitana. Only contained."

"That's what I told Liu Kang at the beginning of time. The realms would choose their own fate, but yet still, Onaga rises, Shao Kahn conquers, and the realms fall to armageddon."

As mortal, I would not remember the many timelines they would have lived to discover this. As I've been told, Liu Kang and Kitana never made it to Pyramid of Argus, but all timelines seemed to end at that point. "Then you are in the same position I was."

She was taken aback by this. She even looked disgusted, but for a moment, I could see she had started to think about it. Perhaps my words would help her understand.

"In another timeline, we had reached Armageddon. Shao Kahn became victorious and destroyed the realms with no one to stop him." To relive this again and again as I had, it is easy to understand her frustration with futility. "I had tried to send a message back to myself to alter that timeline so he would not. That failed, all but once."

"When?"

"When I gifted my status as a God to you and Liu Kang." She let this sink in for a moment, even Goro could understand, as he had fought many wars and the strategies he would have to play over in his mind must have realized the millennia I had to go through to reach this one. "It was you and Liu Kang that stopped Armageddon."

"But we didn't, we're just back at the beginning, where the story really began."

"With the Great Kung Lao's death." Goro knew this part, which means she had told him everything.

"Yes, Goro, but by the orders of Shang Tsung. See, you have taken his place, and Shao Kahn's as the true power of Outworld. You have saved realms that otherwise would have been destroyed."

"I could not save realms that otherwise should have lived."

"Fate, Kitana, is not Time. It cannot be changed. In the end, all the realms will be destroyed somehow, someway. That's the way of the universe."

She did not like that, but it was truth. The universe itself had begun to tear itself apart billions of years ago, well after the Big Bang, but it would be a slow and cold death we would never see. The truth still stood that even though you could save Edenia, Osh-Tekk, Earthrealm, no matter what, some day it would fall.

Her moment came, as the fight ended and the crowds roared for Jade. In this quick stream of time, I thought she would cut it even shorter, or crush it within Goro's many fists. Instead, she looked into my eyes, almost as she did before all of this happened.

"Why did you wish to see me?"

"Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, and Shujinko." I explained, "Shujinko is here to fight for Earthrealm.

"The student of Onaga?"

"Unknowing, but yes."

"Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Onaga all here at this moment in time."

"Give or take."

"Then we must take them." She had a little spark in her eye, the old fire of change seemed to ignite. "Raiden, can I trust you to handle Shujinko and the Kamidogu he holds?"

"Yes, Kitana Kahn."

"Then I will handle Shao Kahn." She looked back at Goro, "and yourself, Prince Goro?"

"The Shokan fight for you." He seemed eager to crush Shang Tsung's skull though he need not say the words.

"If you wish to redeem yourself, Raiden, prove yourself wrong and help me change the course of history for the better."

I took this in. Let it sink like the sands of Kronika's hourglass. The champions now had freedom to choose their own destiny, though fate would always guide us in some strange way, the end result should always be the same. It was as I said, no matter what realm rises or falls, they will all become one at the end.

In all of history, there had been no greater threat to Earthrealm than those three men. Now would be our chance, and now my opportunity to make things right with Kitana.

"I have made too many mistakes, Kitana. I believe you are the person to make things right. I will do what I can to see that through."

"Good. Now get ready, you'll fight Shao Kahn tomorrow." She began to leave, and a little curios struck me cold. She said she would take care of Shao Kahn.

She didn't say she'd use me to do it.


	21. Twenty One - Syzoth

**T**he Mortal Kombat tournament has been the only thing I could call home since the last of the Zetarran race were exterminated by Goro and Shao Kahn. The one place I could be myself, and destroy the realms that annihilated mine. All these worlds that thrived as my race were driven to extinction. They would feel my pain, and my wrath with each generation that challenged it.

Kitana changed all of that, until now. Across the field, my opponent was one of these pathetic hooded figures that followed D'Vorah like dogs. Kytinn? Worshippers?

Kitana Kahn didn't feel the need to watch me do my thing, but she wasn't wanted anyway. Instead, Shao Kahn stood before us as the two competitors met. The figure wore a black robe with deep hood. Underneath, what little I could see, it wore a nearly turquoise and green attire, but under the right light, looked purple, or red, or blue, it seemed to change based on when you cracked a view.

The mystery dropped with the heavy linen robe and shock set into my heated veins.

"Chameleon!"

"Syzoth."

"Fight!" Shao Kahn would not let us speak further.

Claws extended, we reached for one another in shares swipes. It would seem I had over extended as Chameleon latched to my right wrist with his right hand and then pulled it up to let his right jab me with his claws. Leather armor protected me from any damage he could cause, but it pulled as his sharp talons retracted, nearly took the strap with it. A quick knee to the kidney would push him off, but he did not let go of my wrist.

A stomp to the boot, elbow to the temple and then the opportunity arrived to drop down and rise up with a powerful uppercut. It seemed in vain as Chameleon reared back and used his palms to strike my ribs, which forced me back toward Shao Kahn.

"You suck!" He pushed me toward Chameleon.

Chameleon charged forward, with one leap our backs rolled against one another, mine on top of his and I had landed on his opposite side. As he jerked around, my book struck his chin and Chameleon then struck Shao Kahn with his whole body.

"Finish him!" Shao Kahn clenched his massive fists between Chameleons shoulders and shoved him into the dirt.

With a swift lunge, his arms grabbed at my core, so mine wrapped over his, just beneath the ribs. He tried to push, I tried to pull until as one we pulsed down and in one motion, hoisted him up on my shoulders, but he had continued the journey through and landed on his feet.

Shao Kahn looked entirely too amused with all of this back and forth. He dodged my path when Chameoleon cracked my back with a kick and launched me forward, but instead of a shove back into the fight, Shao Kahn grabbed my collar and threw me into the ground, much as he had to Chameleon.

"You yield, Syzoth." He forced my hand, for what reason, I did not know.

"I will kill him!" A spit and hiss up at his face, but even without his hammer, he was a deadly weapon and threatened to crush my skull into the earth his big black boot.

"I thought you much smarter than this, Syzoth." Chameleon took three steps back from the Kahn and then faded into the environment.

Where did he come from?

Betrayer of our kind.

He will be the first I kill.

Night fell on Outworld much as it did the night before. Nothing different, but the air felt stale the scent musty with all the bodies that came to see the tournament. Commerce boomed in the cities near the palace and coliseum. A great success for Kitana as politician, but her success as a Kahnum of Outworld would be decided with the fate of the last fighter.

At the highest top of the seating where the fools and children watched us battle, I sat the whole night through. There was no activity on the field, no dance, no song, no blood, but I could see our brief fight play over again and again. It had been so long since I had seen another of my kind, let alone the coward and traitor Chameleon.

This tournament had become something more this night. Tomorrow, the second rounds of fights would begin. The battles would be to the death and the victor to face Goro. I would find myself against him again, without question, and then I will kill him. Chameleon will not escape a second time.

We Zetarran are no more, so why would a traitor to our people seek me out now?

Does it matter?


	22. Twenty Two - Skarlet

**W**ith teeth and ambition bared, it was time to prove myself in the ancient rite of Mortal Kombat. Still adolescent, I've only seen two other tournaments, and that's to say from outside the Coliseum. Years I have lived in the streets, fought my way through the slums and thieves' quarters, merchant's square, rape, blood, spit, dirt, and then something kind of hit me today.

Took a look at the world around me in this stadium and did see things my way? A world full of a people sans features, forced to take it hard all the time. Fighting with the eyes of our lies, taking it hard. Taking it hard.

I've tasted blood of kin, and I feel like paper, choking on united souls of the elusive victors that break in the new world. Deceived by the next of kin, like dogs defecating ecstasy to be accepted by the new urchin ones. Each step in the dirt, I could hear them on the rails, because of I'll seen, all they said, I see now they are the dead.

Pressed on hard through the night, never to know what's right, and never here, never able to know what it means to care. Never to know what it means to never feel another breath to share, that someone will care.

Now, I am today's double feature.

Guaranteed to get you killed in this theatre of death financiers.

Intoxicated in the sights, scents, and blood, I marched with Kahn at my side to Kitana Kahn's throne. Today Shao Kahn will replace Shang Tsung with me, after I kill him, after I kill my opponent here now.

He was adorned in gold and purple. The Prince of Edenia and set to marry the Princess Kitana, named after the vile Goddess before us. The Princess was barred from the tournament by her father and the Goddess, for her protection. Perhaps it would be wise, for I would have no qualms killing a woman with the face of this Goddess.

Time to break in the new boy.

To break the new boy.

The Virgin King, Rain.

Kitana watched us set into position, Shao Kahn opposite her. The tension between us could be cut with a blade, so I would have to do just that.

"Blood is thicker than water." I spat at the Prince.

"And the rain will wash yours off the street." He snickered behind that smug purple veil.

The streets will be covered in fresh men, oh, not their bodies. Their blood.

Arrogant and dressed to kill like a pleasure-seeking beauty, he couldn't hear me as I flared a bubble of blood from my own wrist and shot it forward in a swift motion that was followed by a charge toward him. The ground beneath him, barely picked up in my peripheral, muddied immediately and the ignorant male dissipated, or evaporated.

My arms pulled behind me, he had teleported behind. He held one wrist and pushed the other up against the small of my back.

"You are a beautiful beast." He whispered into my ear.

The only apt response was to bite him in the cheek and taste his blood through that silk veil. He shook it off and staggered back to remove the veil and feel the bite mark I had left. His eyes narrowed and he began to bend water into a ball, much like the cryomancers of China in Earthrealm, though this would not be so cold.

With a pivot of the heel, I turned and met his orb with my own, which was formed of a mix of our blood that splashed out against us and the two Kahn's.

"If you want it, get it here, thing." I spat his blood back at him.

Though blood was thicker than his water, the force he provided showed that his skill and training vastly surpassed my own. Not a week ago I was a street urchin and still had much to learn about blood magic. Rain would win this fight if I didn't do something drastic, or deadly.

Before the fight, Shao Kahn gifted me a glass vial of his own blood to use. It would serve its purpose as I dodged a roundhouse and tumbled toward the throne. The cork popped off, the blood spilled out with magical grace and with careful concentration, formed into two twelve inch spikes.

"Your face is a mess, Prince." He was covered in blood as facial wounds tend to. With that presented to me, I drew forth a third spike from his own blood mixed with the Kahn's and let it levitate high above us until he would strike.

"Finish him!" Shao Kahn urged.

As he charged, the spikes came down, aimed for the chest between the third and second rib, the throat, and his skull. The instant they should have it, he dissipated. Frustrated, I drew the spikes down into the mud left behind, and turned around to find no one.

"Hot tramp, I'd love you so." His whisper bit into my ear and hands took hold my neck and jaw, ready to twist.

With a swift, panicked arc down and my claws dug into his flesh, he was pulled over my back and onto the ground. The spikes behind us, he kicked up to push me back into them. As I had landed, the blood settled rather than impaled.

"I am the blood." He didn't look pleased at the sight of my possible death, how amused and pathetic I thought this was.

"Enough!" Kitana stood at the thrown and drew our attention to her. "I will not let you pervert my tournament with your games. Rain, you will yield to Skarlet."

He bowed with obedience and took three steps back from the fight circle before he took his leave. Lucky ass to make it away with his life.

"Pathetic." Shao Kahn approached Kitana, "I would have let them fight to the death."

"We would be here all day. I have a tournament to run and you have a fight ahead of you, _Kahn_."

Back on my feet, and dust off my leather attire, and the heat burned within from the sun that bared down on my red and black wear, Shao Kahn surprised me with a hard strike to the gut. I spat out blood, wheezed and choked. He tugged on my ponytail until it felt as though my scalp would rip from my skull and glared down at me through that skull and metal helm.

"You failed me, Skarlet."

"I won." Spoken through gritted teeth.

"It was to the death."

He threw my head back until hit crunched into the sand and my body fell after it. The metal tip of his big black boot slammed into my stomach before he I could hear him move on. All of this before the eyes of Kitana.

"Skarlet." Though she said my name, I didn't hear it at first. My eyes swelled and focused on the mud beneath my flesh, a mix of blood and tears and water left form my opponent. Back in the dirt, back to the streets. Lower than world around me.

Lifted slightly over the hot sand, and covered in my own hair, my face turned to meed the Kahn that stepped down from her throne to me. She looked down at me like I were a creature, but she spoke softly.

"There is no victory following Shao Kahn. Only defeat."

"I will kill him." Slowly, I pulled myself to my knees and tugged set my hair back into its rightful place. My eyes met the Kahn's and I replied, but her mouth, hidden behind a blue mask of silk and silver, did not quite reveal the intention of her tone. Her eyes however, said it all. She had been here before, where I lay, where I bleed.

"You will try."

She was escorted by the massive shokan Goro and the crowds around me cackled and stared. Soon all they would see is red.


	23. Twenty Three - Kitana

**T**he air tasted stale, the dry heat and the sand blocked all of my senses, even sight when the wind howled across the field. Is it really as bad as they say?

There were murmurs in the crowd that I had ruined the tournament. It was so control and so precise, a gimmick and manufactured this time around. There was no stake, there was no heart. The whole of the tournament was emptiness.

The people that said this are the people that followed Shao Kahn to the slums and worked him over as a hero who could make Outworld better than it had ever been under my rule. The other half felt themselves tired of me and saw passion and justice under the rule of Kotal Kahn. He spoke the right words to carry my fairness, but infused with his passion for justice.

All of the politics and none of the worry, because at the end of the day, this entire tournament is for nothing. The deaths that I would allow were all political. Raiden would die at the hands of Shao Kahn because I wanted him to. Though it had not happened yet, I could see it with my own eyes, whether the sand blocked my vision or not.

That is also something I heard, that ultimately my lack of justice when it was time to punish Shao Kahn was not as passionate as Kotal's because Shao should not be Kahn. Shao should be dead.

They're right. There was something inside me that, though I had tried to kill him once, didn't have the heart to. He had raised me, and though he raised me under a mountain of lies, he was still my father figure for so many years. It wouldn't be the same if Mileena stood before me, because she was a fabrication of science and magic. She should not have existed, and yet I hear a new Mileena has been birthed.

Was Raiden right? Is fate really unchangeable? Is destiny nothing more than a fixed point in time, never to be altered at the end, but just how we get there?

Is that the same with my mother? No matter the misery I feel not being able to be her girl the way this timeline's Kitana is able to be, will she still meet her end at the hands of injustice?

Perhaps Raiden shouldn't perish, or maybe it's just not his destiny to die.

Gods can't die.

Only forgotten.

The day progressed as dull as the first. A handful of fighters began to work the crowd like this was some sort of entertainment rather than a rite of life and destiny. The crowds could tell there was no heart this time, even though we on the field felt as though this were the most important one yet.

Shao Kahn, Onaga, Raiden, and Kotal Kahn. So many names that shouldn't mean anything in one singular point of time but now somehow coagulate into this terrible possibility. What happens if Raiden dies and Shujinko manages to resurrect Onaga again? Will I, or Liu Kang be forced to expel our energy to defeat him, only to discover its futility?

What if Shujinko dies, and with him, the resurrection of Onaga, but Shao Kahn then reclaims Outworld? Will my mother perish, and the realms be threatened by this horrid conquerer yet again?

So many possibilities, but fate only has one ending. This is why I took the throne, to stop those possibilities. How naive of me. You can't stop fate, only hope it doesn't burn you on the path toward your destiny.

Did Kronika know this? Is this why Armageddon happened? Should Armageddon happen again?

As these thoughts plagued my mind, another fight ended, and the crowd didn't care. Soon Raiden would fight Shao Kahn, the only fight I would allow a death to occur. The crowd didn't know the history between us, nor did Shao Kahn, but though I made a small pact with Raiden, I think it would be best if he died. It was his mistakes that created this, the least I could have done would have been to unburden him of those bad decisions.

You don't need to consult the elder gods to realize that Raiden was not fit to protect Earthrealm.

That's the decision I had come to and finalized just as the next two fighters stood before me.

Sindel and D'Vorah.

Everyone watched. All of the fighters in their unique groups formed in betrayal and loyalties, schemes and lies. The were interested in these hooded figures that gave their loyalty to me, but it wasn't really mine to have. Any moron knew they followed some unknown force they refused to name.

Perhaps it wasn't Sindel and D'Vorah they wanted to watch fight, but Shao Kahn and Raiden, and how I would handle it.

How does Mortal Kombat end?

"Fight!" My voice carried through the light wind and granted my mother and her opponent the ability to move forward with this great tradition.

Though she had committed treason against my rule over Outworld by having sided with Kotal Kahn's claim to power, I could not stay angry with her and Jade. In my original timeline, she was dead. I'd rather spend a millennia trying to rebuild the bridge with my mother than see her buried in the ground again.

My mother fought with grace. As a revenant she was deadly, but that's because she was the Queen of Edenia, not the damned. She was more than enough to deal with D'Vorah's dirty tactics.

It seemed that the crowd began to thin at the sight of this classic back and forth until a strange moment came when D'Vorah began to take the upper hand. Sure, I'd hate for my mother to lose, but perhaps that would be a lesson to her for having betrayed me, but I know D'Vorah.

She lusted for power.

Anything for the hive.

My mother kicked her exoskeletal jaw up into the air and a wad of spit smacked the wind that scratched their faces. D'Vorah should have staggered back and used that momentum to push forward and come back with another hit, to which my mother would respond accordingly, but she didn't. She planted her jagged extra limbs into the sand, enough to pin her to the ground, and then a tube jutted from her guts and latched onto my mother's purple and black attire. It ripped through the silk and fabric and tugged on her flesh until they were stuck together. I knew what this meant, and pulled myself free of the throne to yield for Sindel, but D'Vorah instead seemed to have expected this of me and with her large wings, swept the two of them into the air. Even Goro could not reach them if he tried, they were so high.

D'Vorah said something to my mother, and Sindel replied, but the words were lost to the wind. The tube began to siphon her life's blood, and I knew this fight had to end if I wished to save my mother.

"Enough!" I screamed into the wind and readied one of my deadly fans to break that tube between them.

The apathy in D'Vorah's eyes as she stared back down at me, then grew with excitement as the crowd finally began to roar and the other fighters gathered in their separate groups to see how this all turned out. It was disgusting. This was my mother!

"This one does not listen to you." She spat her disrespect.

"Who do you fight for?" Sindel tried to free herself, but she was latched tight like they had become siamese twins.

"This one fights for the Dragon King!" D'Vorah pulled my mother in with her long limbs and with her carnivorous jaws cracked my mother's neck, even a chunk of her flesh had pulled away with the bite.

They seemed one at first, but how easily D'Vorah let her go the moment she was dead.

Goro, Sheeva, Baraka, and Bo' Rai Cho were quick to join my side. Goro especially knew what this meant to me. I could even see Raiden hurt and enraged beside Liu Kang. All of this happened so quickly. Jade, Kotal Kahn, Shao Kahn, their fighters, men and women, the crowd, everyone watched as my world collapsed.

I could be come a Goddes but I could not stop my mother from dying? Even as a God I would be doomed to watch her die twice?

"Kitana?" Goro held my shoulder, but I hardened under his grip and my eyes burned with hatred and the passion to destroy.

D'Vorah, smug, watched as the hooded figures now revealed themselves in front of the crowd after they rushed the field to join her.

They knew what would happen next.

"Charge!" My orders were loud and clear and out feet moved with fierce resolve to reach our enemies.

The crowds erupted as the tournament fell into chaos. The splintered groups and factions that now fight for control over the realms and Outworld charged as well and soon we would all meet and decide who among us would meet their destiny, or fate, through Mortal Kombat.


	24. Twenty Four - Mortal Kombat

Raiden shifted behin dShujinko, who had pushed through the group when Sindel fell to the Earth, and pulled a dagger hidden beneath his white robes to cut his throat and let the blood spill out like a great fountain.

Shujinko turned, hands on the blood that now stained Raiden's face and white cloth, shock burrowed into the depths of his eyes. Raiden kicked the Earthrealmer to the sand and watched as three Kamidogu fell from the satchel that dropped loose in the motion.

"Onaga will never return!" He promised as his right foot came down on Shujinko's skull.

Before Kitana could reach Sindel's body, and meet D'Vorah in combat, the hooded figures, Chameleon, Quan Chi, and the assassins Kia and Jataaka were swept from the ground with the force of a hurricane as Fujin and Liu Kang crashed into them. The lifeless body would not respond to the tears that mixed with blood and dirt. In that moment of grief, Kitana knew should be protected by her Shokan. Goro and Sheeva rushed by her as Baraka split off to meet Kung Lao in battle, Bo' Rai Cho split to chase down Shang Tsung across the field.

With red in her eyes and fire in her veins, Kitana looked up at the whirlwind of destruction that was D'Vorah who had swirled up in a cackle and nose dive down at her. She came down fast, but Kitana would break her with her fans that pulled from Fujin's wind. Before she could hit the bottom, D'Vorah found herself back at the top of this slide and thrust out from the center of the field.

Shao Kahn swung his hammer with glee as Kotal's forces met him in battle. The two Kahn's unable to rise above the other as hammer struck sword, but Jade was the equalizer for Kotal. She struck the former Kahnum of Outworld in the ribs from behind with her staff and then planted it firmly into the ground to use as a pole vault that would throw Shao Kahn into Kotal's blade, if it had all worked out that way.

Shao Kahn dodged the kick and used her momentum to swing her into the earth just as the sword came down into the sand where he once stood. He reached for Kotal's arm, hooked him in close and used that metal helm to bash his opponent's head back.

As Kotal staggered, Shao Kahn, hammer still in hand, swung it down on Jade's skull.

The splatter blinded Kotal Kahn, both in sight, and with rage.

Shards of bone and brain smacked Mileena across the face. She wiped herself clean as Skarlet rushed off to meet Bo' Rai Cho in combat. Left alone, her tarkatan teeth bared. She had her own enemy to take care of in this chaos, but little to her knowledge, he had already found her.

She felt a coldness sweep her off her feet and wrap itself around her. It felt like bony fingers tried to dig into her body from her shoulders, ankles, and ribs. When she could see who it was, Shang Tsung had raised her nearly as high in the air as the top of Fujin's tornado that crashed through the throne.

She cried out. Her limbs tried to scratch the air and break free, but even as she saw Skarlet and shared a moment of eye contact, she was not strong enough to resist this magic.

Shang Tsung too noticed Skarlet and tore the child's body from its soul absorbed the ferocity of Mileena's tarkatan blood just as Skarlet's dagger cut into his left, exposed shoulder deep into the muscle and bone.

Across from them, Goro and Sheeva contended with the Centaur Motaro. A great mess of limbs and muscle fought for control over the superiority of species. The centaur felt one of the shokan behind him and kicked her off, as his front was busy with Goro with an exchange of strikes to his equine chest as his hands protected his human segment and struck down at the Prince of Outworld.

Sheeva, not to be struck down by a centaur, rose up and leapt onto the creature.

The crowds cheered as the battle ensued. There may be no love between the enemies on the field, but they were fierce dancers. D'Vorah's swarm swept through the crowds until they too became part of the panic. She flew past the highest pillar and stopped to admire the chaos she had created. Beside her, Havik approved. Unhooded and his robe left to gather in the wind, they scouted their next opponent and as Havik dissipated, D'Vorah swooped down to meet the two Gods on the field.

The Kamidogu crunched under Kung Lao and Baraka's feet, until Kung Lao's body buried them, a hole now sealed his fate. Baraka's spike whipped the blood clean off with a hard jerk that spat across the sand around him, where Havik joined to collect what was left.

The two began to battle over the corpse of the Great Kung Lao. Baraka would stop anyone that had tried to collect those now shattered jewels of destruction. The pieces of Onaga that could end the world should he return. Though Raiden sought this with the death of Shujinko, it did not mean the fight was over. If there was anything left to harvest, he'd stop Havik.

For Kitana.

The Kahn of Outworld stood, the body of her mother now at her feet, and she watched as blood littered her coliseum from the highest seat to the dirt beneath her. Raiden joined her, to check on Sindel, but his kindness was met with her metal.

"You did all of this!" Rage at the edge of her teeth for the former deity. She struck for blood.

Raiden's staff blocked her, but made of wood, it would not survive many strikes from her bladed fan.

"Listen to reason, Kitana!" He tried to rationalize it, but there was too much chaos to think about and defend himself from. "I wish to help you." He found a pause as her fan found itself embedded in the wood.

"Do you, or don't you want to die, Raiden?" She grit her teeth and pulled away from the futile effort of her weapon's trap.

Liu Kang's feet danced on Shao Kahn's chest. The fire that burst between boot and flesh burn across Kitana's scar. He raised his hammer in a futile effort to defend himself, but this only prompted Liu Kang to bounce back and land in stance. The hammer crashed into the earth, just in time for him to punch Skarlet back, who had tried to break into the fight after him. In his mind, he thought of how he'd killer after for that moment of treason.

Shang Tsung bled out not far from them, and Mileena's shriveled corpse just a yard out. Rain aided Skarlet and the two challenged Shang Tsung.

Shao Kahn threw the helm off as blood now clouded his vision. Liu Kang spoke, but in this moment, Shao Kahn could only hear his heart beat and breath.

All of this to come back and he watched Syzoth leap onto Chameleon as the two embroiled in a ferocious power play. Both covered in blood, but Chameleon's wounds seemed worse as the Shao Kahn's agent tore the other Zeterran's jaw off, only to devour in one gulp.

What little success Shao Kahn saw of his combatants, Reiko able to fend off Bo' Rai Cho, and Shang Tsung at war with Rain and Skarlet, he saw defeat as well.

He saw it right in front of him. Having known he walked into this battle unprepared, Liu Kang reminded him with one last strike. A punch that burned around the fire god's knuckles and so fast, Shao Kahn could only watch as Liu Kang's forearm broke through his chest and as quickly as it entered, was pulled free of a nearly cleanly cauterized wound.

He took a moment to stagger, to look down at the mess of his existence, the whole of his destruction.

Liu Kang, still in a defensive stance after the strike, spoke again to Shao Kahn, but now all the Kahnum could here was a low ring in his ears and the crunch of his knees as they struck the sand beneath him, and the hum of existence as it quickly fled from him.

In his last moment, he thought how funny it was that he would have claimed victory over Mortal Kombat had D'Vorah not interfered. Raiden, a mere mortal, would have no chance against a former Kahnum of Outworld.

Liu Kang surveyed the damage and the battle that still raged on. He saw Kitana and Raiden at odds with one another, but their struggle did not seem as severe as the Shokan Prince that could no longer hold back against Motaro. The great centaur reared back on his haunches and prepared to end the rule of the Shokan in Outworld and bring in a new era promised by Kotal Kahn.

As his legs came down, Goro was forced out of the way and the Fire God intervened. The Shokan fell back and caught himself with his lower forearms, but the God struggled to hold up the Centaur.

This was a moment not unnoticed by Kotal Kahn. Liu Kang had chosen his allegiance and it was to Kitana. He charged the field for Liu Kang, even as Sheeva helped the Protector of Earthrealm overcome the weight and strength of the centaur.

"You're souls will be mine!" Shang Tsung spat, one arm slack as the wound inflicted by Skarlet not only bleed, but worked against him. In his leg, a shard of his own blood coagulated into a weapon had been pierced through him.

"Soul Magic is stronger than blood?" She asked, but it was sarcasm. She had him now, and there was no where Shang Tsung could escape. He had killed her sister, born in blood, made of her own blood and flesh. He had to die.

"I'd like to test that theory." Rain added, and began to form from dry air around them a single orb of water that grew and grew, just as Skarlet began to pull Shang Tsung's own blood into another orb.

His last words, "always." A response she would remember as he seemed to age before her, but just as the souls escaped, it blinded the two of them from being able to seem him clearly. He expelled some of his power to disappear into the ether.

"Where is he?" Rain let the water fall as it may, and searched around them, but Skarlet knew better. She didn't respond, only turned away toward the rest of the carnage behind them.

Three bodies littered the field where Earth realm would have stood to watch the final battle between Shao Kahn and Raiden. Kollector pushed aside the corpse of Kung Lao, which was crushed under Baraka's. He grunted, disappointed at what he found. Unable to seek what he thought was worth the sight. He tried to spot a dull brown lump that was Shujinko, there, Kollector hurried over to pull the body away and survey beneath.

"Nothing?" There were no shattered remains of the Kamidogu. Just blood and bone and earth.

"Hold!" A great voice broke the dry spell and filed the coliseum with heat.

The fighters continued their war. Rain and Skarlet had joined Bo' Rai Cho against Quan Chi and the two assassins that had formed a barrier of magic. Skeletons of green energy reached out with swords to kill their enemies, but even they fell as the voice forced all on their feet down to their knees.

"I said Hold!"

Fujin's voice carried over the wind and echoed throughout the coliseum. All of the combatants halted, not by choice, but forced to their knees as the wind knocked them down. The only two standing were the deities Kitana and Liu Kang. She mulled over this moment to strike down Raiden, but Fujin was too near, and Raiden's eyes held too many truths she had yet to learn. As much as she wished to kill him, she was no better than him the same situations he was forced into. Raiden acted out the way he did because he did know what to do, just like her now that she contained his power.

Liu Kang was the first to speak. He noticed Kotal had charged for him, but Fujin's wind prevented it. "Kotal Kahn, I am not your enemy. Our enemies have fallen today!"

"Shao Kahn and Onaga are gone," Raiden added.

"I will not stand as Kitana runs Outworld into the dirt! I will not let Jade death go without vengeance." He roared back and raised his sword to aim across the coliseum toward Kitana as she turned from her ruined throne.

"I will not let a usurper live to rise again!" Kitana responded with equal vitriol. "I will not make the same mistake twice."

The two began to charge across the field, but Fujin had met them with a terrible wind.

"As Protector of the Realms, I will see the fighting end this day."

What was left of the combatants had begun to form into their new groups. Skarlet, Rain, and Syzoth joined behind Kotal Kahn as Raiden, Reiko, and Liu Kang formed behind Kitana. She was the true Kahn of Outworld.

There was no sign of D'Vorah, Quan Chi, and assassins, but there was no time to dwell on that.

A funeral would be had.

For a queen. For the peace between realms.


	25. Twenty-Five - Kotal Kahn

The cold river's maw was blackened with the lies thrown into it. The city we left behind had an angel in the lobby that waited to put me in line. She had a beautiful description, but a head filled with songs she shouldn't hear. All the lies she spewed, from the crib of her mouth into the water this old ship sailed across.

South of this ship, the Portal in the sea, and ahead, Lung Hi Temple. Behind was Kitana's palace and Coliseum. The only smiling are the dolls that she's made, but they are fickle, and so were her brains. As this old structure aimed for the Centaur Hills, the moon above reflected jade highlights in the river below. An illusion in my eyes, that took me away.

Though it is necessary that Shao Kahn did not service the battle that erupted within the coliseum, it should not have been Lord Liu Kang. It should have been me, Kotal Kahn. The loss of Jade broke the bonds that hold my heart together and the strings that tugged on my will greater than I would have thought.

Instead of using isolation as an oxygen mask to breathe in to survive, a Kahn must stand tall. The tower we build must overlook all of Outworld and overcome all of its problems. So, as I cast my gaze to the land far behind then horizon, ignore the storm clouds above and tense my heart for the ride ahead, why is it that my soul falters and escapes through my breath in the form of Jade?

How would father lead in this moment?

Then it struck me, though I have suffered a great loss in this battle, so too have others on this ship. Her presence sucked me in like a psychic vampire. For a moment, I could feel every vein in my body pulse as though a magical force plucked them like the strings of a harp. The presence of Blood Magic.

Along starboard she leaned against the wood rail and stared up into the stars. Did she see the blood of her enemies stretch across the galaxies, or the arrow in that stuck into her throat that I could tell held the tip of another's name.

The stars glossed over in her pathos as I approached and she turned over from eyes to the sky, to the river.

"Kotal Kahn." She greeted.

Soon all of Outworld would sing that song.

Her ruby lips were valleys of the death and the spit between them a bitter sea that swallowed passed the arrowhead in her throat. The winds of change scratched the walls of her maw and passed through the valleys to the river beneath us. She felt loss too.

"What is your name?"

"Skarlet" She threw it to the wind.

"Look at me." There was magic in her, but it was wild-eyed and free. It needed to be harnessed, strengthened and disciplined. "The girl was a fabrication of sorcery." This was the only sight I could believe attributed to her. Skarlet had a smaller girl near her that, if you looked into her eyes, had that same spark as hers, but it was not natural.

She stared back at me as I touched the chin of her soul and pulled her up to me with a pierced glare. She could tell I had sized her up in my eyes. It was not her current state I had scrutinized, but what she could be become.

"No. She was torn from me and beaten into shape with magic. Shang Tsung created her from my blood." She seemed to bite her lap at the mention of his name like her teeth were daggers that stabbed into his flesh.

"I am sorry for your loss, but she was a creature of magic. All magic comes with a price."

"Shang Tsung will pay his." She turned away again, her eyes lost into a scenario where she had the sorcerer by the neck.

"There's blood in your nose."

A warm drip began to flow down from her brain storm that rained out into this dry, windy air. She glared up at the storm clouds above and before she could rub it clean, I had reached out and tugged it from her flesh with the magic within me.

The drops of blood began to form an orb, a natural configuration that then cast down into the river like a lure for the beasts beneath.

"I will teach you better than Shao Kahn ever could." She touched the dry flesh where blood once waited to crease those valleys and those eyes, unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed, gazed back at me.

"You kn–"

"For your loyalty, no matter what the circumstance."

I could see the thoughts in her eyes like the electricity that formed in the sky and rumbled low among the clouds. These little moments of thunder were scenes in her brain I knew she played out before her where she would tell me no, or if she had the strength to say yes, but perhaps it those valleys of death betrayed her thoughts, or her heart's blood just needed to respond immediately with a clear answer.

"I will serve you."

Has these words settled like a calm wave down her flesh, I had begun to turn to seek the thoughts of others on this wary situation, but she stopped me, a hand on my flesh, a sting of humanity.

"You feel it too?" She didn't need to say it, as she felt the same.

"Too strongly." Then I added, as a Kahn should, "but we must set those feelings aside and be the leaders we were born to become. Be the person you needed the moment the world was taken from you."

You're not a ghost, Skarlet.


	26. Twenty-Six - Quan Chi

There are no shadows in the Nether Realm. The fires that burn the faces of its revenants reveal all scars, all emotions, and intentions. There are no shadows like that in other realms.

Here on Shang Tsung's island, the shadows dance like woman across the halls of Goro's chambers, through the bars of prisoners souls still caged in the withered corpses, and beneath flicker of gold strewn across after the destruction of Shang Tsung's empire.

Here, there grows a great weight on the shoulders of the world in the shadows of the underground. The Kytinn, so few, yet so much more than man is willing to handle.

The cackle of carapace husks cracked beneath loose stone and the breath of an ancient past followed me down into the depths of the his sanctum, deeper than even Goro's lair.

"Show me, bug." My deep voice, soft but echoed in this hollow lung of a chamber deep within the Earth.

D'Vorah behind me soon fluttered her wings and trickled down the stone steps like little pebbles thrown at the sinner to skip ahead of me. Her movements, almost avian, but yet so deeply disturbed and unnatural that it was a nightmare just to watch her move.

Her body, though feminine in nature, was a threat of violence from the very force of evolution. Ancient, so lost in the past she could only be described as alien. It beckoned me to know what those heartless innards pulsed for.

What do you live for D'Vorah?

"This one will now show you the Hive." She said with a quick jerk of her head nearly fully round her neck like a praying mantis then she disappeared into a black hollow only big enough for one body to enter at a time.

On the other side, there were husks and webs, stone-like eggs that stood as pillars of the past and an obelisk that once terrorized the world, formerly known as the Queen of the Hive. The sight was truly horrendous to any mortal man, but to this free-roam sorcerer, every stench, every cackle and buzz of the few that remained was like a godsend.

"Onaga has promised survival of the Hive." She echoed his promise, but then added with a dejected click of her mandibles, "with the loss of the Kamidogu, that now falls to me, and you."

A promise I had convinced her would be kept.

"Yes, bug. Outworld will see the Kytinn rise again. Under Quan Chi." An echo for her to devour.

"What do you propose?"

All eyes were cast upon me and expected an answer they could easily grasp with their primitive minds. All they knew was survival and it is all they cared about. D'Vorah didn't care about her own life, none of them did, only the life of the hive. Unlike them, I only cared for mine, but she would assist in my own plans for survival, and conquest.

They would all have a role to play.

"With Sindel dead, Kitana has been greatly wounded. Her heart, her pride, her kingdom. This is the best time to take one enemy out, while we plan for the next."

"Kotal Kahn sails across the river to the Centaur Hills, would it not be best to sink his ship and let his kingdom drown with him?" She had a point, but all things in due time.

"No, bug. Kotal Kahn has just gained an army, and Kitana has lost an entire world. She will be the easiest to remove."

"The Kahn will see it coming."

"Oh, I don't intend on killing the Kahn."

Her eyes fell upon me and if they could tighten, they would have in an attempt to understand my intentions.

Kitana would see them clearly without a single word spoken.


	27. Twenty-Seven - Kitana

The water formed in a puddle that reflects the distorted world I've created in my head. Each drop, a dagger that pierced through my flesh, and each ripple the cause and effect of my actions. My eyes glared through the silken screen of water that collected on the stone walk way of the meeting hall where I expected a man I had once revered as close to me as my own true father.

My fingers slipped across the hewn stone and broke the reflection I had created. Though we come from the past, from a whole different world than this, it is our actions in the present that determine who we are no matter where we are. No matter who looks back at you in the mirror.

Outside, I could hear the shamisen players through these stone walls. Dim, but beautiful. It was like the light and music awaited me to step back outside into that world, but instead hide in this dark, empty, and soaked hall of my own discontent.

The portal doors cracked opened and the light reached in with it's guiding hand. Its fingers stretched across the wooden floors of the long meeting hall and as hard as it tried, it could not reach under the great table to grasp at my feet, which stretched out to meet it. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never understand it.

A man stepped through the light, conical hat, old white robes with blue sash. Raiden had arrived for our meeting.

"Kitana Kahn." He greeted me, and I nodded, still with the reservation as though we were two enemies met under forced circumstances.

"Raiden, sit." Even though I was appropriate, it was still difficult not to call him 'Lord'. Liu Kang had changed since becoming the Fire God, but Raiden, the legend, the myth, the man behind those human eyes stayed ever the same. To only call him Raiden, seemed as bizarre as him calling me Kahn, as opposed to Princess, as he always had.

"We must settle our differences, Kitana." He spoke first in what could possibly be a long conversation. He was right though, this fire in me could not linger on and burn him from beneath my shadow. Our differences must be settled, or Outworld would fall to Kotal Kahn, or worse.

One last glimpse as the rain continued outside. The pockets of light that shined through the clouds as they slowly drifted apart was not the same on my side of the hall as it was facing inward from the entrance. It was on purpose I chose to sit with indirect sunlight, as it seemed appropriate considering the location, but in this little moment, I envied Raiden for having that brief moment in the sun before the portal doors closed.

"I would have given my power to you, Kitana, come the time." He admitted. It is a shock to hear, as it's hard to tell who I would have been had Liu Kang not defeated Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat.

"That's hard to believe, Raiden."

We didn't need to use our names. We were very familiar with one another as close friends and allies for millennia, but it felt wrong to address him as an ally at this point, as an equal. Perhaps that's my fault. Perhaps it's his. "You gave Liu Kang the power of time and simply let it flow. Now we are here, in this awkward timeline."

"It is not Liu Kang's fault we sit in these circumstances. Though I do wish he would rise to the occasion more."

"What do you mean, Raiden?"

"I had gifted Liu Kang my power as a way to defeat Kronika, but to show my deep trust in him as the new protector of Earth Realm. Who better to protect it?" He added, "but he does not take the same actions I would have had I kept it. There are circumstances not beyond our control that he lets flow."

"You know I told him once that we would let the realms decide their fate?" This moment was intimate between Liu Kang and I, at the edge of existence, where nothing and everything could happen. "We agreed not to interfere in the realms unless it was necessary, but most importantly, chose not to turn back time."

"You did it anyway."

"I did it, Raiden. I begged him, many times because I couldn't keep seeing my mother perish, or Edenia burn into Outworld. There were losses personal and across the realms that I kept trying to stop, but ultimately–" He interrupted me.

–"In the end, you cannot stop fate." He reserved himself a moment for apology, this intrusion was then accepted and he continued, "Time is a fickle thing. It doesn't exist, not really. We can go back, stay in the present, or even move forward, but no matter where the when, things will always happen as they do. It's just the natural order of things."

"What do you mean by that? Happen as they do?"

"You can save Edenia from Shao Kahn, but you could not save Zaterra. You could save Sindel today, but you cannot save her tomorrow. It doesn't matter when things happen, because no matter what, it will still happen."  
This was a hard lesson to learn. Everything he said is something I knew, but didn't want to accept. We had turned back time many cycles and each time I got more and more frustrated as the world still crumbled around me. If I saved Hanzo Hasashi from the cruel fate of becoming Quan Chi's remnant, Bi Han would still be Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei and in time, Hanzo would be dead by natural causes and we would suffer the wrath of the Cybernetic Initiative without Scorpion's help.

These little thoughts began to pop into my had during the last few cycles. It was a continuous experiment to see how to tamper with fate enough that the right things happened, but the all the wrong things happened to my enemies.

Fate doesn't play that game.

"Are you planning on going back?" He broke my concentration, and this question almost caught me off guard. "With your mother dead, will you turn back the hourglass again?"

It took a moment to really let that sink in. The answer was already known somewhere in my mind, because Liu Kang and I had drifted apart long ago. He would never allow that, let alone allow me near Kronika's Hour Glass alone. However, it made me think of the current events and how things have played out

In short form, "no."

Raiden was pleased with this answer, a breath of relief escaped him and I could see him visibly relax, but still guarded as we still had so much more ground to cover and revelations to make.

Why go back?

Each time I had, we never really reached the point of Mortal Kombat as it was the first time around. Sindel always died at some point, except for the one time she hadn't, but Onaga had risen and destroyed three realms in the process. That was the worst timeline.

Now, however, I've been told the Kamidogu are all but destroyed and thus Onaga's plans to rise have been dashed, if not completely ruined. Shao Kahn is dead, and despite my current division with Ko'atal, things aren't bad in Outworld.

One of my truest friends is gone, but at least Goro remains. This, though bitter, is till a positive outcome with all things considered.

Is it better to have to have it bitter than to act out with the best of intentions and make it worse? That's what I've done, and that's what lead us here, but this single moment is the moment I've finally realized that bleak, but free is the best timeline to be in.

Our lives are meaningless save for the purpose we give it. Purpose it is time I begin to accept the purpose of others and give my own a greater meaning than I've allowed for a millennia.

With a breath in, and a glance over to Raiden, those eyes broke my heart to see. Raiden is not a mere mortal, not meant to be mundane. He is a God. He is my friend.

"Lord Raiden," the title, whether appropriate or not, was a symbol I had hoped he grasped, "will you forgive me?"

"Always, Princess Kitana." The light seemed brighter in here with the air now clear and the rain finally passed.


	28. Twenty-Eight - Quan Chi

There is nothing more alien than the eyes of an insect staring back at you, and not being sure which one of those many, blank orbs, actually harbors a soul behind it.

D'Vorah was vigilant and always very close behind me as we descended through the Kytinn tunnels. She looked human, but that was nothing merely a disguise. Being a construct of the Nether Realm, it is not uncommon to be disturbed by the sight of grotesque things, but D'Vorah unsettled me.

Behind the queen, long past and nothing short of a husk of carapace, the Kytinn had dug tunnels deep into the Earth beneath Shang Tsung's island. No doubt he knew of this, and I'd like to know his opinion of it if ever we cross paths, but trapped alone in the realm of the alien was not where I expected this journey to take me.

As a free roaming Sorcerer, there's this feeling you get when you travel between realms. This almost jiggling of your bones, the jostling of your flesh, and the squishing of your very being. Your body feels as though it has been reformed to configure to this whole different form of existence.

That feeling, like a footstep in blood, rippled through my body as the cackling carapace of D'Vorah's shell etched across the earthen tunnel around us. She was cold, and she was apathetic. She was certainly alien, but she offered something I desperately needed.

Answers.

My body had been deeply disturbed by this rippled effect for a very long time. Since I was child, but only recently has it somehow expanded and is less like a simple ripple in a great sea of disturbed, but as now become a tsunami the waters of my very being.

Something is wrong with this world. This feeling has followed me to every Realm known to man, and beast. It scratches down my body and gags my throat.

At first, I thought it was Onaga. The power needed to return death to flesh, and great flesh and power as his was impossible. Onaga needed to do more than just seek the power of the Kamidogu to return, but even then, there is a fine line between life and death and nothing crosses it.

This is different.

As my hands caked in mud and bled as the tunnel narrowed with stone walls around us, and then dried as it widened back to dry earth, shivered with every grasp. My body was visibly shaken, but yet D'Vorah behind me moved with precision. Cold and calculated.

She clacked and clicked her mandible teeth together to get my attention and spoke, though her voice seemed almost drowned by the pressure that pushed down on us. "This one can feel it near."

"How much further?"

"Not long."

It was obvious to me at this point that D'Vorah may have never come through these tunnels. That was unlikely however, as she was the only Kytinn capable of still moving freely through the island. She would have explored all of its depths and surfaces. She would have tested and tasted all of its magic and mundane. The spot behind the Queen was buried by dead flesh, dried slime, and caked earth, so it is entirely plausible this tunnel had not been travelled for as long as D'Vorah had been alive.

That could very well be near eternity.

She was right, though, I could feel it. There was a strange balance in the force around me. I had been so used to the torture and hell of the Nether Realm where I had been born that this strange feeling that found me grasped to the tunnels for dear life was almost pleasurable. My muscled loosened and my jaw dropped to enjoy the air of silence and peace. That jagged tsunami that rocked my body suddenly became a serene lake of stillness.

What is beyond us?

To feel my body for the first time still and able to move without that sensation was incredible. The closer we got, the wider the walls grew and then suddenly my hands that grasped in the darkness found nothing but ledge. This was when I let D'Vorah climb over me, my body flat for her to cross. The feel of her hard shell in that nearly human husk made my skin crawl, but perhaps that's just because I've never felt her so closely.

"What do you see, bug?" She stopped just at my shoulders. A moment passed after she stopped to look at our surroundings before she climbed off.

I could feel the wind of her wings. There must have been quite a drop before me. Dirt pierced my eyes and her hard fingers grabbed at my wrists to pull me from the tunnel with ease. She had great physical strength for a creature of slime and shell.

"This one does not know."

There was darkness behind us, but this tiny room, just four meters around, but the drop to level ground was ten meters down, and every glance at the floor revealed a dull, dim white light that grew as we got closer.

She dropped me onto my feet, my boots sprung to action on the earth beneath, but I was not prepared for what lay before us. At the center of this cave was an orb of white energy. It was made of glass and metal that twisted around it so elegantly, you might describe it as a protective curve over this possibly fragile sphere. There was a band that stretched around it and then arch that jutted beyond it about a foot, and curved around in spires.

This sphere, beside description, was beyond words.

"This one discovered it many moons ago. This one has already forgotten about it until you asked." She narrowed her eyes at me, which seemed worse in the pale white light, "how did you know this was here?"

"I didn't." My hands stretched out, after a quick scratch at my sides to clear the blood and dirt. "I've felt this strange force inside me for a very long time."

"Explain, Sorcerer."

"That is difficult, bug." It really was. "Perhaps the best I could explain it is like being trapped in a storm, or a place you know you shouldn't be in, but yet somewhere deep inside you, like the back of your mind, or somewhere in your, well," it was hard to compare it with her, as she did not have one, I presume, "heart, that if you could just move forward however much more, you'll be okay. That everything will be fine, that this screaming, this storm will pass."

"This one does not understand."

How could she? She wasn't even mortal.

My hands touched the perfect sphere. It was glass, the cleanest work I had ever seen, and smoothest I had ever felt. This was not the work of any mortal or beast. Not the work of an god, or even elder god. This was truly alien.

This did not belong here.

Or, did we not?

There was a strange peaceful, almost sexual tremor that coursed through my body the moment my flesh touched the glass. That essence of bliss that causes your brain to short circuit for a second before coming back down to earth, except I felt it all over and it lasted for as long as I held to this glass.

It just felt right.

"I am Kronika, Keeper of Time." A voice echoed through my ears. It was clear as a gong banged in front of me, but yet something about it seemed alien. This woman's voice felt as though it were revealed to me from beyond the grave. Had I chanced upon the impossible?

"I am Quan Chi, sorcerer of the Nether Realm." Perhaps futile, but could this be a channel to another existence? An existence beyond the realms? Beyond time?

"A conduit," it spoke again, but the voice less clear, "I have hidden many within the very fabric of time."

"What does this do?"

"I will show you."

The light brightened and though this dead voice echoed through my head, it was a taste, a smell, a touch of something I had never deemed possible that sent my mind into overload. My body disturbed beyond repair, beyond even D'Vorah's presence.

What this voice showed me was a vision, but not just that, it was as though I had been transported into this brand new world. What it showed me was the answer to it all.

Why are we here?

What is our purpose?

What is the fate of the realms?

Where do I fall in the fabric of time?

Who was to blame for the world we live in?


	29. Twenty-Nine - Kotal Kahn

Her breath, her smell, the touch of her skin on mine reached out across this lonely chest and slowly traced the curves of flesh until her claws gently raked against my lips and urged all attention be on her. Jade's eyes, emerald and sharp, stared into the orbs within my skull and searched the colored lines like racing men for a finish line she could reach.

Her lips, those warm muscles that gifted me the beauty of her words and voice, curved and carved air around them but no sound came out. Her touch was warm, and she let that hand fall down to much chest, where the heart nestled between the second and third rib, but when I reached out to touch, I could only feel the same warmth, mine, not hers.

Disappointed, I pulled away from her and peered out beyond our chamber embedded above the coliseum to watch the champions of Mortal Kombat all in melee.

The chaos was unique and never before seen during a tournament as rigid and traditionally respected as Mortal Kombat. It all began when D'Vorah assassinated the Queen of Edenia and then Kitana's forces charged in without hesitation.

Motaro, Rain, Shang Tsung, Goro, Raiden, Skarlet, all of them charged, but somehow I felt as though I should be there. There to show Kitana and Shao Kahn what a real leader did in this unprecedented situation. To face Shao Kahn and end him as Kitana should have, and to march side by side with Jade.

That's what a Kahn would do. That's what my father would have done, but here I am up here with Jade, letting the world pass us by.

D'Vorah raised up high with the two Gods, Fujin and Liu Kang as Kollector and Syzoth, Sheeva and the young Mileena found themselves in battle with their respective enemies. Jade and I would be here to watch it all unfold and claim the ruins.

A glance back, a coy smile on my lips at the prospect of us in rule together over Outworld, but her side of the bed was empty. My headdress fell to the floor, and the world stood still.

The battlefield was littered with bodies now. A headless Chameleon, the young construct Mileena slain by her own creator. Havik, Quan Chi, and D'Vorah had sewn the seeds of chaos and crumbled the very tournament. Shao Kahn's corpse on its knees with a hole that burned outward from within his chest. Not far from him, Jade, her head shattered like stolen fruit.

Here I was, away from it all, only able to watch the only person I had ever cared about strewn about the earth in the most gruesome fashion possible. The sight tightened my chest and opened my throat. This strangled esophagus began to convulse as bile clawed its way up and over my tongue. The jagged ledge of the window that peered over the arena tore away from the structure and my body began to fall.

My feet fell through the stone floor that just faded away like mud down a hill. Like lance to shield, by body was pierced and pinned to the stone wall that remained of this now ruined stadium. A quick look down revealed the survivors that chose to follow me all stared up as the others scattered in fear. Within my chest, Jade's staff struck between the third and second rib and held me as it sank deeper and deeper by the foot.

That warmth I had felt from her hand rippled across my bloodied chest. This was when I looked at my attacker.

Shang Tsung stood in the air, with no gravity to pull him down. He stood like it were earth, a small metal object in his hand glowed with a bright green light and a smug grin stretched across his face as it turned forward the hands of time to an older version of himself.

"Kotal Kahn, we are here to fight in Mortal Kombat." He then pointed toward the staff lodged between my chest, "are you that eager to die?"

"I will rule Outworld, and destroy you."

"Now, now, Ko'atal." Shang Tsung opened the small metal lid of that contraption and from it, plucked a green energy that spiraled around his finger and dangled like a ball before a cat. "What if I told you, I could bring her back?"

"No one has returned from the Nether Realm."

He snickered, and his body transformed into the mysterious sorcerer known as Quan Chi. To be honest, I knew little about this man, but it seemed Shang Tsung implied that he may have something to do with this offer that dangled like hope before my heart. As fast as he turned, Shang Tsung then faded back into his younger self.

"From this moment on, Kotal Kahn, my island will be your battleground."

He took a step back as his body shrunk to the form of Kitana and then faded entirely into the distance with Havik, Quan Chi, and D'Vorah as they fled fast for Shang Tsung's island.

The waking world was a vast disappointment. Should I live in my nightmares to see Jade die over and over again, I would take that over never seeing her again.

"What are you trying to tell me, Shang Tsung?" my breath spilled over the thin veil of cloth that pulled away from my chest to reveal a full sheet of skin over ribs and breast. No staff, no injury, no heart remained without Jade to pump it full of her joy and blood.

A slow stretch over the edge of the bed and glance at the port hole showed we were close to land. The Centuar Hills would now be the new epicenter of Outworld and the beginning of my Kingdom, but now I was curious.

Somewhere between the realms of Earth and Outworld, in a lost sea, waited Shang Tsung's Island, and perhaps the answer to an impossible question.

Can the dead return? What is the cost to return Jade?


	30. Thirty - Kitana

As the clouds began to drift slowly away from one another as friends eventually do, I peered down the into the city beyond the coliseum to find the fire of my former life travel aimlessly along the market square.

Liu Kang was always aimless. From the first time I met him on Shang Tsung's island, he never really knew his path in life. Even today, it seems he is a man that has desperately clung to whatever present he stepped into, with no desire for change.

It was my desire for a better future carved by our hands that drifted us apart as the clouds above us, but ultimately we were always better allies than lovers. If I am to remain Kahnum of Outworld and continue to hold the realms steady, Liu Kang's aid may be necessary from time to time. He is, after all, the protector of Earth Realm.

It wouldn't take long to reach him, half an hour perhaps? It would be easier to send for him, but still my body refused to move and my words wouldn't ask my guards to retrieve him. It is one thing to make peace with Raiden now that I have been in his position and saw that in the past, and present Raiden has always done his best, and what he felt was right. Liu Kang on the other hand, has taken apathy, or perhaps not that, but non-action in the face of life altering events. Kung Lao would never have stood idly by.

There may no longer be love between us, and I'm quite all right with that, but can there still be some semblance of partnership?

My thoughts were disturbed by a great bang on the portal doors of my chamber. Now high in the castle that once belonged to Shao Kahn, I could look over Outworld, the coliseum, it's city, and hide from my problems, if only for a time. This one chose to come to me.

"Enter, General Sheeva." She was always allowed in, but it was courteous to knock.

"Kitana Kahn," she lowered herself in deference, waited for me to allow her to rise, and then approached. "Ko'atal has landed in the Drylands and will soon take his caravan of traitors to Motaro's keep in the Centaur Hills."

"Thank you Sheeva." This was good news. Ko'atal would travel by land and take more time to reach the Hills than it would to cross the sea. Ships do not tire.

"What would you have us do, my Kahn?"

This was a strange position to be in and it gave me moment of pause. For a second look, I could see Liu Kang drifted off into the distance of the city, no longer within sight. The people of Outworld had begun to lose faith in me and even cheered Shao Kahn upon arrival. The poor and the homeless rallied behind him because he promised them things he would never give them. What little I can do, I have done as best as I can to provide for the people of Outworld, and the other realms, but with Ko'atal now having amassed an army of his own and the allegiance of Edenia, my grip on this realm would soon loosen.

It is not a pleasant idea to think about ending Ko'atal's life, nor the fighting those that followed behind him, save for the Centaurs. He is an honest man and a man I know capable of doing Outworld right, but his is a warrior.

In order to maintain order in this realm, I have to be the one in control. Ko'atal needs to understand that, but how can such a message be conveyed to someone who has already lost faith in me? How can this message be conveyed to those that believe he is now the true Kahnum of Outworld?

"Kitana?"

She broke my focus and I glances up at her, my dear friend and General of the Shokan army.

"We march." These are not words lightly spoken.

The air tensed around us like a muscle that pulled itself in before the ultimate climax of relaxation that may never come. She knew what this meant, and so did I. This is war, and this is how I must maintain my power.

"When?" She stared into my eyes for the answers even I searched hers for.

"How long until they reach the keep?" She hip undoubtedly landed at the edge of the Living Forest, but no man would dare to enter that entanglement. The hills were vast, and the drylands greater. They would have to travel around the forest and up the Drylands to reach the Centaur Hills, and even then, Motaro's keep was snug along the shoreline where the grass grew taller than a would be very difficult to reach on foot for an army, and no Centaur would dare let anyone, let alone a Kahn on their back for the journey.

"Take your best men and women and go tonight. Take our fastest ship."

"They would be half way to the Keep by the time we landed."

"Cut through the forest."

"The Living Forest, Kitana? Are you serious?"

"He will ensure we get through safely." We didn't need to speak his name. It was best not mentioned at all to ensure the secret was kept between us, but there was no way I'd let Ko'atal leave without a pair of eyes and ears on that ship to send news back.

You do not declare war on my kingdom and get away free, Ko'atal.

"Cut through the forest and bring Ko'atal and the traitors back to me alive. They will swear fealty, or they will rot in the dungeon."

"The Centaurs?"

"Kill them. All."

That muscle relaxed as she closed the doors behind her, but this moment, this tension would last until I saw Ko'atal back in the city.

Can we make this work, Ko'atal?

Must you choose war?


	31. Thirty-One - Kotal Kahn

To watch the army of the centaurs move from sea to land left me amused, but to watch them follow my lead as I began to instruct them in the order they move and the groups they form as this new army took land, left me certain that I would be Kahnum of Outworld.

"Motaro, take the first group out." He nodded and my command took affect.

With Motaro traveled four other centaurs alongside the Edenians Tanya and Rain. Behind them, as they knew these lands better than I, travelled my Osh-Tekk men, three more centaurs and Skarlet. Behind even us, to keep eyes on the ship and the land behind us as we all travelled, Syzoth, and the remaining two centaurs. The men on the ship pulled the sturdy ramp back up and the captain curved from the land back toward the sea.

We were now alone in the Drylands. The hot, dry plains that accented this small continent. It was three days at sea, with the pull of the sea portal to get here faster, but it would be a week before we saw the Keep that awaited me. No longer a prisoner of the Centaur Race, but their leader. The Kahn of Outworld.

On foot, we would be slower than the centaurs, but could protect them from side attacks from natural predators and rival tribes. There were a lot of small satellite villages in Outworld on each continent yet to have been tamed by any Kahn. These villages would fall to me one by one and a grander army would form.

When we landed, the great sun in the sky had already begun to sink beneath the blanket of the Earth. it peered wary at us as we moved along the smooth curves of the Drylands toward the higher hills, and stared as though it knew what the landscape held before us. If only the sun could speak to me. Though my body was fueled by its light, I could not speak its language.

When it finally dipped beneath and allowed the moon to show itself high over our eyes, it was time to make camp. The centaurs formed a barrier for us with their bodies. Two centaurs kept watch and three Osh-Tekk.

In order to maintain order within the camp, Motaro insisted on first watch, and I would take second, and then our best warriors each would take third. Syzoth, the reptile he was, took all three.

"Travel ahead, Syzoth, see what lays before the hills, and if you come to the forest, return with any information." Our orders were strict, but he more than accommodated them.

The reptilian being quickly blended into the world around him and all that we could tell of his movements were the sounds his feet made as the rushed through the brush off into the distance.

As I stood with my eyes to the horizon, ever vigilant of his unseen movement, Skarlet approached from my left side and I could sense the tension that held her arms close to her chest, folded, guarded.

"Do you trust that thing?" She pondered.

Our eyes met, and my resolve was certain. She could see it, even in the darkness. "I do not have to. He will listen to his Kahn, or he will die."

"He may still." She nodded and gazed with me toward the horizon.

"We may all die yet, Skarlet." Our last words before the the next watch began.

The second watch was as calm as the first. Syzoth had not returned, but it was not my intention to see him before daybreak. My thoughts were more focused than my feet as they travelled aimless around our camp. Though my eyes could see the world around them, my thoughts lingered on Jade. On the dream I had where Shang Tsung promised he could return her from death.

How?

Though it may be just a dream, should I encounter the Sorcerer again, perhaps it would be worth to ask.

Behind me, Skarlet and Rain began to talk by the fire. She had started to inch closer with the Edenians. She would soon learn Blood Magic the way Shao Kahn would never have taught her, but it would not be my desire to hold her to me. Only Jade could take my side, and as of now, only Motaro may be my second in command, but this woman is strange. Her past is dark, and her soul darker, but those moments in the light where I can see it shine within her eyes, there is hope yet for her.

Third watch came and my eyes drifted. Though I could not sleep, my thoughts still lingered on that same dream. Each image, scent, touch, word played over in my head. In the stars I could see her eyes glance back down on me, and the glisten of those far away giants felt like tears that fell down her cheeks. My thoughts, my mind, my body adrift in this nightmare.

"Awaken!" A scream echoed through the large encampment and my eyes widened, and hands immediately reached for the sickles not far from my sides.

Pulled from the earth, I scanned the horizon to find the Centaurs jut up from their haunches and launch toward a red and yellow light that grew from the distance.

"Fire!"

A village had spotted us, as I could see the peasant wear and the human faces that marched like hogs toward us with fear and anger. They were no allies of the Centaurs.

"Get up!" I kicked the dirt onto Rain's face and forced I'm awake.

Skarlet joined at my side with Tanya on the other.

The fire spread fast along the dry weeds and grass that surrounded us. There were spots of dirt where the chinch bugs had devoured, but the hills were alive with the sound of the rustled cackle of fire.

We marched forward to meet the ire of the villagers. Hundreds had turned out. They knew the Centaurs would be vulnerable upon return from the Coliseum. By the look of their tunics, the dull earth tones it appeared to be the southern villages come down from the mountains that hid the city Lei Chen.

The fire grew and licked at our heels. My sickles met the intestines of several villagers before I had the chance to survey the battlefield. Two centaurs rain for shore lit ablaze. One had already fallen.

"Motaro!" His voice echoed in the distance after my call, but I had heard him only once before the fight began.

Rain joined at my side not far after Tanya and Skarlet split and with his great power, began to soothe the angry flames. The villagers, still in the hundreds, trampled by hooves, heads removed by swords, and blood drained by Skarlet, still marched on with their torches and basic weapons.

Where was he?

"Rain!" With a firm grasp of his shoulder, I launched him back once the flames on our side had been sated and ordered him to seek out the old Centaur. He nodded and eagerly teleported through a burst of water to the center where the villagers had broken our protective circle.

This was almost too much, but with diligence, we would make it through. Quickly, without Motaro to aid, I had to command his troops. Five Centaurs to slay fifty men! Skarlet to drain their blood and launch the spikes into the skulls of our enemies. Tanya, with her skills as an assassin to sneak through the flams and quell the rebellion. The Osh-Tekk would march forth as fodder to lure the villagers to their untimely deaths, but even as their numbers dwindled, I could still see no sign of Motaro.

The flames died hours after they burned bright with hatred and the soot and soil that blackened beneath us gave way like mud to our trample and search for the dead. The moon above us rushed over the horizon to escape this unsightly battle and the sun peered over again, eager to see the war it had known would come, but never said a word to warn us.

"Kotal Kahn, here!" Skarlet had spotted me aimless in the crowd. She grabbed my arm and guided me toward a charged mass.

The gnarled horns, the burnt off goatee and the color of his fur and flesh. This was Motaro. Charred beyond repair and likely his last breath was choked in the grey smoke of the fires as they had fanned out quickly due to the dry heat. He would have died before we even met swords with the villagers.

An old Centaur warrior, now allowed to dwindle into ashes.

A fate I would proudly have accepted for my people as well.

"Centaurs! Osh-Tekk! Men and Women of Outworld!" This moment would echo through the hearts of us all. "Bring all of the dead and rest them upon your fallen leader."

The shock rippled through the camp with the stomping of hooves, and even the eyes of my men seemed surprised to hear this, what could have sounded like a great disrespect to a great general as Motaro to lay with the dead villagers and his kind alike.

"Motaro held me captive and had every intention to let me rot in a cell." Before any interruptions or altercation, I continued, "he chose me to lead you as your Kahn, not because I was able to talk him out of imprisoning me, but because of the promise I made to him to grant him the world he desired, the world you all desire."

"What world is that?" One voice spat and others followed.

"Osh-Tekk are warriors, just as much as Centaurs, and that may be common ground enough for us to move forward, but without a true goal there can be no true alliance between us." I stepped forward into the circle. "Motaro understood my vision, because it was his as well. We're tired of the wars and tired of oppression, we're tired of the realms fighting and destroying themselves as they tear away at us, at Outworld one by one. His vision was simple, just as mine is."

My sickles met his flesh and hurried beneath as several more bodies met his for the funeral pyre. He would have my weapons with him in the afterlife. As these men and women would have my promise in life.

"We desire a one world. A unified Outworld. Our world." How this sank in, I am not sure. Each and everyone in this circle died for this cause because that was the only cause to fight for. Motaro only freed me so that I could free his race. "I cannot do it alone, and you know that you cannot do it either, but if we all rise together and fight back the hatred and the vile contempt created by the current Kahn of Outworld, we will be free! We will see his vision become reality, and I will lead you to this! I will give you a unified Outworld where Centaurs can roam free with men and women, without threat of death, without oppression, and without a Kahn that sees them as animals, rather than citizens."

All of these words could form great things and wondrous feelings that burn the heart bright and brave, but actions speak louder than words. The only way I could bring freedom to all of Outworld, was with these men and women behind me. Thought he centaurs trust is not easily earned, I had gained Motaro's and that should be enough for them to listen, but will it be enough for them to follow?

"I am the true Kahn of Outworld, but only if that vision burns inside of you as well. Only if you let me."

Jade would be proud. She should be here.


	32. Thirty-Two Quan Chi

The memories of life rolling a stone up a hill in hades, a child scorned and burned just to breathe in a world made for legions of hell. My life was buried in books, in magic and the dream of escaping the underworld. The many villages, hamlets, camps that litter like dead roaches across the hellish landscape of the Nether Realm never able to grow, never able to live long enough to reach adulthood. Though I have escaped, it had come at a great cost to my health, and my search for knowledge and power has taken an even greater toll.

One does not become a sorcerer without having seen themselves become destroyed piece by piece year after year.

What is left of me?

What is left of you, Kronika?

My hands, gentle across the glass, slowly traced down and slid off. The white radiance began to dime and with a sudden shock, cracked. D'Vorah's eyes pierced the glass as mine had with horror and curiosity. the entire orb shattered before us, with only the metal left and not long after the glass pickled under the mud beneath our feet, so too did the metal fade into the sands of time.

The voice I heard did not sound as though it were of the living, but an echo of a being once powerful enough to leave her mark across the entire fabric of existence. The mortal coil was swirled around her pinky, and someone did not let it linger.

The vision she showed me, the timeline I travelled was a sight so strange and foreign and yet answered so many questions as to the why this world is so bleak, empty, and yet promising for those such as myself seeking power and knowledge in the crags of time.

Kronika, a voice that cracked and hissed as though it stretched through the micro and x rays of space just to reach my ears was beautiful, but there was death and deadliness in her voice. She spoke of things that happened that never did, but yet I saw it, many times over.

D'Vorah's curiosity prickled her mandibles at me and she looked up at the darkness above us, then back at me, with barely a hint of light to see the reflection of my eyes in hers.

"We should leave." The only answer to any question she may have. "Let us go, bug."

She lifted me with her bony carapace hands and hoisted us into the air with her monstrous wings to the entrance of the wiry tunnel. Once out, we travelled across the caverns carved by the what little remained of the Kytinn. So few, barely enough to call an army, after a second glance.

The Kytinn would soon be extinct.

"This one senses something above ground." D'Vorah held me back at the chest before we reached the earth and stone steps that spiraled beyond the spinning totems of the elder gods that had opened the gates into this monstrous cave of prehistoric disgust.

She was right, as I could feel it too. It was a presence I had not felt since––

"How did I know I would find you crawling around my island, Quan Chi." A familiar voice echoed down into the caverns.

"Shang Tsung?" D'Vorah let me step up toward the dim moonlit entrance and the bound sorcerer stared back down at me.

He wore leather, black and red. Pants and boots that hid in the shadows of the night, and a long black coat with red embroidery of a dragon that stretched up from his right shoulder and across to the other side. He assisted me in the climb up the steep stairs to ground level and then I turned back to D'Vorah.

As she readied her wings to fly up, my hand stretched out to stop her. A gesture that might suggest I would rather assist her than let her expel more energy, but it was not that at all.

Behind D'Vorah, my three assassins emerged from the shadows. Jataaka, Kia, and Sareena. Three agents of hell that managed to escape the Nether Realm just as I had, if not as painfully as I did.

"This is where you get off, bug." My words were a death sentence.

Without even a glance back, I could hear the scream and the cracking of insect-like armor that formed her body. The slime that splattered the earth and stone. The wings that fluttered as within the cave, a great fire erupted after a skull whispered from the fingertips of my fellow sorcerer and spiraled down to consume any living creature that remained in those horrid tunnels.

Did I not say the Kytinn would soon be extinct?

"We have much to discuss, if we are to seal this deadly alliance of ours." Shang Tsung smiled, thin and worm-like. He was such a cunning beast that you could never really tell when his truths crept from those lips, or if the truth was really hidden in the daggers of his eyes.

"And I have much to show you, old friend." Together we would embark on this new journey to carve the world into the timeline it needed to become.

Only the wisdom of a sorcerer can know the what the future holds. And the vision held within my mind was a future far different than Liu Kang and Kitana imagined they'd create.


	33. Thirty-Three Lord Liu Kang

There came a time when I thought Lord Raiden could do no wrong. He had saved us many times from Shang Tsung's henchman on the island, and so many more between then and the invasion of Shao Kahn to Earth Realm, but that is when things began tear away at us.

Had I known the choices he made were merely human, were really just a man that desperately tried to do what's right, I would not have acted the way I had. Perhaps we would not have reached this point in our journey where my mentors has aged, and I am now a God, the God he once was.

Every moment he takes a breath, a mortal man, I have learned to savor the wisdom shared in them. When he is gone, there will be no Lord Raiden, there will be no Elder Gods to consult, no protector of Earth Realm to do what is right, even if it means doing the worst thing imaginable to assure a better outcome for all.

It's strange, these moments I spend with him, like now as we walk along the streets of Outworld's city beyond the Coliseum and watch as the lower city erupts in protest and the well-off fear for their lives but still hold dear to what ever tangible strings their Kahn can provide them, I think back to those times when he would tell me little things to help me and Kung Lao in our journey. Now, in his shoes, I find myself unable to do that.

What do you tell the man that's been through everything?

"Watch out, Raiden." A stone was thrown by the rabble.

Caught in my fist, and smoldered to ash, my eyes lit with the radiance of lightning and fire, just as Raiden's had back on the island before the goons in Goro's dining hall.

"I don't think think so." My cautious words burned through them and they scattered. Do not cast stones at a God and think that it will fall lightly to the earth.

"Well caught, Lord Liu Kang." Raiden remarked, but he would have done the same.

"Raiden, I feel you have been disappointed in me, in how I've handled things." As we neared a tavern where peace and privacy would be allowed us, it was the perfect time to finally have this discussion.

His eyes, those old mortal eyes stared back into mine. Did he feel surprised that I knew? Perhaps he was glad we got out of the protest of the city before we spoke. Maybe he knew it all along and has only waited for me to finally step forward and speak first?

The two of us found a table and sturdy chairs for a god and an older man, and after a moment of shared silence, baited breath that lured the other to speak, I chimed in first.

"I have not done as you would have." This is true, and at the core, why I believe those fatherly glares at me persisted when I would do something he disapproved of, or not do anything at all.

"I am proud of your ability to hold back, Liu Kang." He finally spoke after his words were carefully chosen, "but in times like this, in the face of Onaga, Shao Kahn, and the descent of Kitana, I would have imagined you'd have done something different than stand idly by."

"At the precipice of time Kitana told me that evil would persist, no matter what we did." That moment filled my head as if it were yesterday. Our eyes, young and in love, in wealth of power for good, but, as I explained, "I learned really quickly, that the worst things imaginable can be done with the best of intentions, Raiden."

As two mugs reached our table from a load bearing bar matron, he raised it to me and smiled and old fatherly grin. He knew.

"By the elder Gods, you've got it."

"I let Kitana shape time as many times as it took her to understand what we had already agreed upon, that the fate of the realms must be left in the hands of the realms. That is what freedom really is. No more destiny, no more strings being tugged on by some higher power, just men and women jostling to find their places in life."

"And yet, sometimes, Liu Kang, you must act to preserve even that." He added, "freedom is neither, nor dumb. It is a dying child that begs for the antidote and you will always be too far away to administer it. How you chose those final moments determines the fate of that child."

"The moment the fire in my eyes burned with the desire to kill you, I realized my folly and the visions of many timelines played before my eyes. Each one, we fought. Each one we died. Each one, Kronika got her New Era." He added, "It was the moment I laid down my fists and realized that inaction at times is the best course of action, but when I gifted you my powers and destroyed my chance at eternity, I knew in that moment that it was the right choice to make."

"We could have defeated her."

"We would have lost a billion times over, Liu Kang. There are moments that you will see where you the choice you make will hurt yourself, or someone else, but it is the right choice to make. If you believe you have not found that moment yet, then I understand, but I pray to the Elder Gods before us that when it does come, you will step forth and become the Protector the realms need."

This was a lot to take in. Moments played in my head of how that time could come. Was it between Kitana and I? Would be in battle with Onaga? Would I relinquish my own Godhood to save a mere mortal, just as Raiden had?

These thoughts weighed on my shoulders and perhaps what I didn't have this whole time was that opposite perspective. My inaction was because the actions of another were so futile that I believed it moot to do anything anymore. The world will find its balance, whether an evil regime takes over and forces its citizens to suffer, or a wondrous Queen heals a damaged realm with her love and friendship of the races spread like wildflowers across this realm. No matter which, the other would find a way to ruin it, find a way back, and then be made ruins again.

Is there really a moment in time where we can finally stop this madness and save the world?

Is that what you're telling me Raiden?

At what cost does it take to finally tilt the scales to one side to the point of no return?


	34. Thirty-Four - Sheeva

Seventy Shokan on a rickety ship ready to save the world from rebellion. How does it all end?

The captain, and old man that could barely stretch his thin arms up to turn the wheel stared out to the dark sea beyond the portal that swirled like a black hole in the middle of the water. Above us, he ignored the swirl of storm clouds that threatened one another with mock charges and loud roars of anger.

We Shokan swim well enough, but in these waters, should this old ship sink, we will travel down with it. Kitana Kahn has put all of her trust in me to ensure that the rebellion is quelled and the traitors brought to justice. By the fists I clench to hold on for dear life, I will make that happen for her, for her vision of the future.

Seventy Shokan, many with oars in hand that tried to steer us toward a new tomorrow all worked themselves until they could move no longer. As strong as we are, the Shokan are still flesh, muscle, and bone, like everyone else.

"Switch out!" I ordered my men and women. Some must rest as the others rowed to aid this old man's ship forward.

Though we call it old, rickety, and close to sinking, this ship has travelled the seas for longer than I've been alive. The ship has never spiraled to the bottom of the sea, and will hold enough of us and the rebels to return to the city. Ko'atal, Skarlet, Rain, and Motaro will all face justice for their betrayal of the Kahn. All others will die.

My eyes deceived me as the swirl of clouds launched themselves like fists at one another. They screamed in pain and hatred as they collided and merged, bled down upon us with rain, and spat with lightning with each loud curse at their enemy.

The ship began to tilt to the left and to look over starboard as the first porthole raised well above sea level frightened me, but as a General you must hold true to your convictions and show the men and women that follow you to battle the person they need to look up to, the person they need to become.

The old man who steered the ship with such resolve had suddenly disappeared as the rain and lightning flashed and danced around us. As General, it would be my duty to steer us toward the Living Forest's edge. All this danger, just to walk right back into it. All of this for Kitana, all of this for our future.

"General! The captain is overboard!" A shokan reported, almost screamed with alarm, but it was no matter. This was our ship now and we would steer her, us to safety.

"Keep rowing!" My orders pierced the dense screen of rain.

The sky screamed down upon me with fangs bared and hatred loud. My four hands clasped the wheel and took charge of our direction. The Portal wasn't far, but it would threaten to swallow us if it desired. Where it took us, no one could tell you. Without a sorcerer, or great power in your spirit to seek a specific direction, the Portal was random and often fatal. No mere being of flesh and muscle and bone could enter it. It would tear my army apart, this ship, and me.

"Row!" Another scream stabbed through the daggers of rain that pierced our flesh. My men took charge and pumped their muscles raw as the oars were not light, and not easy to churn such troubled water.

"Row!" They echoed even when I could barely hear them, and even when I could no longer see them.

The only thing I could see was the pitch black of that portal as it opened its great maw and bellowed out a promise to devour us all in one gulp. The glisten of the rain in the water and the strikes of lightning as the sky licked its vitriol across the sea surface was all I could use as light to steer west toward the Living Forest.

Should we fall south, the ship will land in the Drylands, or even further south, crash into the rocky beaches along the Isle of Elders. The path was wide, but in this storm, who knows what could happen.

Kitana, I will not fall you!

"Row!" I heard again and again like a drum that beat through my very arteries and as the wheel slipped and my hands grasped again and again to maintain order in this chaos, I used those voices to remember that this ship must land safely.

Then the sky, perhaps betrayer of Kitana and follower of Ko'atal pinched the mast and tugged it with the wind and as it sharply twisted toward the Portal, lightning slapped the side of the ship and its very core spewed like blood into the sea!

No!

So close! So far! So much for our future!

The Shokan beneath may as well be the guts of this ship as they fell into the sea and the ship rocked harder to its side and faster in the wind. If I could see, I know that the Forest was just up ahead. We had spent only several days in the sea before this, and it had to be near. It had to! Ko'atal would be closer to the Keep before we knew it and may have even reached the Centaur Hills with Motaro before we even touch land, if we ever do. Still, my resolve is that of my Kahn's and I will follow, and love her straight to my doom.

"General!" The words sounded familiar, but I could not hear them.

My knuckles were wight, my eyes barely able to stay open. Armor had blown off my shoulders, my leather braces swelled in the rain and united from all the turns and twists my arms made to keep hold of life, but that voice broke the wind, crashed through the rain like a spiral of death that fell into the Portal.

"Sheeva!" My name was called, but I held to this. A captain goes down with her ship, a general dies with her army.

Before the next turn, as the Portal just barely nicked the wood and claimed tens of Shokan me and Women alongside the sea that now chewed bitterly on their sour flesh, I watched as several of my men rushed me and a foot stomped down from the clouds in the form of lightning right against the wheel.

Perhaps that night we sunk into the Portal and it tore our flesh like pulled pork. Perhaps we sank in the sea with land just miles ahead.

Will I know?

The darkness, the bleak emptiness of the Portal, the air, and the future ahead seized my body and my mind went blank.

"Kitana–" My breath fought back against the daggers of rain that cut my lips and face. The warm blood that filled my throat with the cold air and rain, oh my Kahn, is this my mission, to taste my final meal with these men and women who have died for you too?

No!

We must persevere.

If only I could awaken.

Just one more time.

"Lord Fujin, save us!" The last words I thought I heard, or spoke, or perhaps imagined. "For Kitana."


	35. Thirty-Five - Skarlet

Kotal Kahn stepped foot into the circle. It was fast, perhaps rash to act so quickly in the immediate face of death, but perhaps he had something in mind when he did this.

Prior to, I had filled my vial with the blood of the strongest villager to fall, a bald soldier type that came with a steel sword, rounded edge, good to hack his opponents with, but not so much to stab. The new world had a point.

As the tip of the vial clicked tight, there was a commotion and cry of the centaurs. The Osh-Tekk and Centaurs gathered around a charred corpse. Old Motaro, as some called him. He was old, but he could have survived a millennia more, honestly. Life has a tendency to linger in Outworld, but when it's ceased, it's often harshest.

Kotal Kahn took note of this too, he was just on the other side of the circle, Tanya not far to his right. Rain collected himself behind me and together we approached the circle of the shocked and the downtrodden.

Motaro was a leader of his clan and had united all of the Centaurs in the hills under his banner. There were skirmishes, wars, treaties, broken promises, and invasion. So much one race could do to itself and then you add the whole other continent where Shao Kahn awaited the victor. He saw something in Motaro and aided him for his loyalty.

Though that loyalty was bought, it had not been earned. From what I know, Kotal Kahn had been risen from a warrior clan as well, from the Realm of Osh-Tekk. They were savages in that realm. Nothing but war mongers that fought and fought, and killed until the entire realm was ruin. The visual seemed much like Shao Kahn's Outworld.

When Kotal Kahn came to Outworld, he did so with his father and other Osh-Tekk clan. He was forced under Shao Kahn's leadership and most likely had a chance to meet Motaro well before being captured by the Centaur.

It's not sure if they did, or what relationship they may have had prior to, but as he spoke to the Centaurs, and I know this speech was only for the Centaurs, as their hatred of people can run deep and a hard river to turn, he revealed that the two shared a common goal of freedom for their respective clans. Unity in Outworld. Our World, he said.

Clever, Ko'atal.

The reason I will follow you is because you are clever, and you are dangerous, but I do believe, as you say these words to us, that you will unified all of Outworld to your banner. Kitana will bend the knee in fealty or she will die.

Under Shao Kahn, it is more likely that he would have raped and killed me when he was done toying with me than to have fully taught me all he knew about Blood Magic and kept me as his second in command, the spot previously held by Goro before the Great Betrayal. Maybe he wouldn't have, but we don't live in that timeline.

This is the real world, and my eyes cast around me to see the Centaurs, though bitter about the battle, and deeply sorrowed over the pyre their great leader has become, they can hear his message. They can feel it.

We are one.

That night, after another day of travel, with only three more left before we reached Motaro's Keep, now considered Kotal Kahn's first official Hold in Outworld, I watched from afar, as Ko'atal was more vigilant at night. The attack most likely would not repeat itself, but with our enemies all around us, there is nothing you can say for certain.

He was tense, like usual, but more so. At the battle, I had seen him mourn a woman in green, or jade, which ever shade you call it. Perhaps that woman would have been his Queen come the day. By that logic, two queens died in the Coliseum that day.

He scanned the skies with narrow eyes and refused to stop his watch, even as Rain took third shift. There was a ruler in those veins. As a peasant, Kitana forgot us. As the broken children beaten and abused in the streets of her Kingdom, Kitana did nothing for us, but Kotal Kahn took me in. He offered me a spot at his side, quite unlike Shao Kahn.

The sky darkened even blacker above us. Kotal Kahn dared not stare anywhere but out to the hills where the enemy could strike, but had he looked to the skies, as most of us had, a strange storm cell began to form.

Just as we noticed, Syzoth scrambled to Kotal Kahn. You couldn't even see him as he rushed to our leader. Kotal then looked up to find a white figure form in the clouds and then as we widened to make space, unsure of what would happen, it the figure lowered from the skies into the form of Fujin, the God of Wind.

"Kotal Kahn!" He commanded. "I demand your attention."

Kotal reached for his Macuahuitl, the heaviest sword I had ever seen. Fujin did not appear pleased by this gesture and reached out with the slightest effort as a great dust bowl formed from the long grass and swept up to encapsulate Syzoth and Kotal Kahn together. Our leader cut through, but was temporarily blinded. Syzoth had waited until Fujin dissipated the minor storm.

"Speak, Protector of Kitana." Kotal spat.

Fujin landed, perhaps his biggest mistake, but Kotal Kahn did not strike. He glanced to Syzoth, as the reptile slithered back into place with myself, Rain, and Tanya, then toward Kotal Kahn.

"I will protect Kitana, only when it serves the realm. Same for you. I serve only the Realms." Fujin added, "whom do you serve, Ko'atal?"

"I am the Kahn of Outworld, I too serve the realms, but I will not be made a fool by Mad Queen." His response paved little reaction upon Fujin's face. Those white eyes narrowed and then he pointed out down the great valley toward the forest line, which seemed so small from this distance, of the Living Forest.

"If you truly serve the realms, and seek to 'Unify' Outworld, then you must seek out the Shokan."

Madness! There are no Shokan in the Living Forest! It was too much to let Kotal handle this alone and though I stepped forward, Fujin and Kotal did not need to turn toward me to let me know that my place was not near them. A gesture of cold wind crept up across the blades of grass and cut my cheek.

"The Shokan have aligned with Kitana." Kotal stated the obvious.

"They align with those that uphold Honor." He added, "a wayward storm, not my doing, had captured a ship of Shokan, including the General Sheeva. They had come to take you back as prisoner before Kitana, but the ship had crashed at the shoreline of the Living Forest."

"You believe they wouldn't kill us at first sight?"

"Yes."

"You believe I won't kill them at first sight?"

"You won't."

Fujin began to raise into the sky, back into the storm cell he had created above us. Kotal planted his sword and stepped forward for one last answer.

"Why?"

Fujin's responded as his voice filled the skies like the thunder above us, "Our World."

Syzoth beside me and Tanya, Rain not far ahead, we all looked at one another and then as an army, toward the Living Forest.

Is this where the new world begins?


	36. Thirty-Six - Kitana

Party girls don't get hurt when you can't feel anything. Used to be the one for a good time call when Shao Kahn horde's put them back across Outworld's taverns and we the world's mess swirled in the glass, tucked down our throats until we could fly.

Tonight, I won't look down, but keep my glass full for the night. There's a man that needs me in the streets of this broken city before the sun is up and we all run into this mess. An old cloak and hood, earth-tone cream dress and low cut shoes to blend into the crowd that lives day by day to hold on for dear life.

The castle far behind, the city around my eyes and the people could feel the love of war in their hearts. Politics raised my city like the Naknada did the villages that could not pay Shao Kahn his blood money. The moon's purple haze filtered my gaze through the dirty streets toward the merchant's quarter where stone met earth and the buildings began to squish tighter to hide those dark alleys, to stop monsters that would cross through them to snatch you in the night.

A particular tavern lead me through the streets of the Garden Quarter, built under my rule, and now burned to the ground by Shao Kahn and Kotal Kahn supporters. Bless their traitorous hearts, Elder Gods.

Where do you go when you can only hold on for a night to your sanity, and wish to lose it all the same?

Cho's.

Named after the famous Outworlder that has chosen this tavern has his go to home from home. Bo' Rai Cho. Not his tavern, but as their best customer, why not give him that honor?

Somehow, as I entered, my hands covered in brown goatskin gloves, and arms covered in dirty cream sleeves to hide that smooth royal flesh and my face covered by a blue cotton cloth around like most that did not want to pick up the illness that carried through the stale air, I didn't see any honor within this tavern tonight. Only peasantry and shame.

This tavern was not big. Most buildings in the city weren't, as Outworld was not a big financial hub of the realms, and most money got filtered back into the champions that travelled rather than stayed. It was of modest size, however, eight tables and a good bar to get some of the best ale in the Garden Quarter.

Tonight wasn't busy, some men circled with a Tarkatan. The sight of that humanoid reminded me that Baraka had lost is life in the battle of the coliseum. Since the loss of Baraka, there has been unrest with the Tarkatans and their trust in me has shaken. They've remained under my thumb only because of their hatred of the Osh-Tekk and Centaurs.

Ahead, as I stepped along the old wooden floor through this twenty by thirty tavern to the bar where a large robust man sat, a Naknada watched me with careful eyes, also hidden in a shroud. That race still followed the word of Shao Kahn, even after his fall and my reign began. It's been so difficult to keep them under control as they are the masters of their trade. What is this one? It doesn't matter tonight.

"Sir Bo' Rai Cho?" My voice was soft spoken and lowly behind him to maintain the presence of a peasant.

The loud wet clank of a glass slammed down on water stained wood followed my approach. The tavern maid took that as a sign to refill immediately and he rotated around to take the sign of my approach as a way to discover whom would try to speak with him.

"Come sit, Kitana." He spoke low.

Even drunk, he could not be fooled.

"There are spies here, you may best stay hidden." He nudged a stool near.

"Thank you." A quick whisper and low bow to pay great deference to the famous Bo' Rai Cho as I took the seat he offered.

There was a time when the people would look at me the way he looked at a full glass of ale. He gulped it down in nearly a single swallow and slammed it back down as hard as the last time.

"Why are you here?" He asked, his voice coarse and guttural with gas that bubbled back up from his stomach.

"I haven't seen you in a while. I've been worried."

"I haven't reported in, you mean?"

"That too."

He glanced down at me, those old wise eyes narrowed and his lips pressed tight before another, quicker swig of ale. This time, he let the glass over under his bottom lip, tucked just along his beard and glanced down at it, pensive.

"You shout out orders, but I can't hear a single word you say." He let fall into the foam.

"You chose to stand behind me."

"I chose to stand behind Outworld. I fight for the realm, not for its ruler."

"That's treason, Bo' Rai Cho."

"I might argue that anyone that tries to conquer the realm and make it their own is treason."

"I've only wanted the best for Outworld."

"That may be how it started, little Kit, but we're fighting your war now."

This man I revered and looked up to, even as a child under Shao Kahn, could he truly have been so far away from me that he is actually a man I've never known before? Has this face been my own projection and not the real Bo' Rai Cho?

"Who are you right now?"

"Kit, you sent the Shokan to another continent to wipe out Kotal Ka–"

"Ko'atal. He is not the Kahnum of Outworld."

"Kotal Kahn is as much a leader of Outworld as you are." He added after another swallow to empty the stein. "You all use the citizens as your pawns for war in this useless game of Chess as the realm itself suffers so you can feel more important. You're both idiots."

"What would you do?" This gave him pause. My instinct would be to ask him what to do about a difficult situation, or struggle I felt with someone else. This time it is with him. If he knew best for the realm, then tell me.

It took him a moment to answer and in the that moment of pause, my eyes scanned past the hood toward the rest of the tavern. The Naknada had left, but the tarlatan and two men were still present. My eyes scanned back over to him to find his answer.

Bo' Rai Cho snickered under his breath and drank again.

"Kotal Kahn is the least of your worries, Kit."

His words fell into the hollow glass as the slam of the tavern doors echoed the wooden walls. Three large Nakanda entered, the hooded one behind them. The three guests immediately grasped in those strong arms and thrown out. The bar maid took this as a sign to make her exit, with a nod from Bo' Rai Cho and few coins slipped over the counter, she swiped it and ran toward the back which exited into a small alley.

"This your doing?" My eyes scanned is for betrayal, but that grin maintained, perhaps drunken, but instead of a response, I watched him slip off his stool and approach the three Naknada.

"What's your names?"

"The Assassins."

"So, two asses and two others in here also about to get their's kicked. It's treason to attack the Queen."

The tension burst as the Naknada pulled daggers from their leather belts and charged the famous Bo' Rai Cho. My cloak dropped and beneath the skirt of my dress were my fans tied to my outer thighs. Here we are, still fighting for peace.

With six arms, the three are quite formidable, but Bo' Rai Cho's drunken style was still a loose and slippery grasp for them. As he danced around and spun to avoid them in an almost pacifistic manner, never aimed, nor ever touched the enemy, I watched as his face turned a pale green and knew to move away from the scene as all that ale came back up to spill at the feet of the assassins.

One slipped down and then Bo' Rai Cho's foot came down on the dagger hand and the other on the Naknada's throat to crunch it in with a hollow crack. From that position he dodged a swipe and lunge, just as it were my time to enter the fray.

"You are not to be harmed, Bo' Rai Cho, only the Queen." The hooded Naknada pushed passed them toward me and from his heavy linen robes pulled forth a long sword, for each hand that faced me. Behind him in those scrawny feeler hands could be anything.

"You think I haven't trained under the Shokan?" The witty banter part of the fight had begun.

"For a queen, you've been reduced to only two fans?"

The metal dangers of my fan spread and guarded my core from the swords that came in with arched strikes from above and below.

He had begun to push me toward the bar. Despite not a single scratch passed these strong fans, I could not advance. The other two Naknada had also grappled Bo' Rai Cho and the struggle for control leaned toward them with each strike.

"Who sent you?"

This was met with silence. He was an assassin, not a villain.

My body couldn't duck, he'd strike down, it couldn't raise, he'd swipe my legs. My sides and front were blocked with each one-through-eight strike and step-drag forward with those massive legs, but now the bar pressed into my back and those swords pressed closer.

A quick glimpse behind the hooded Naknada, Bo' Rai Cho had escaped one and pushed the other into the a table against the right wall. His arm was a deep shade of red, but he moved swift for an injured drunkard. The one behind him pilfered the dagger of the fallen assassin, a quick gesture that would have otherwise given Bo' Rai Cho a chance to strike, but with six more arms in front of him, he was occupied.

He pulled back up and charged toward me, rather than the robust distraction for his ally. Bo' Rai Cho grabbed on of the arms and curved the large body of the assassin over his back onto the ground and then jumped down on him with full weight pressed down on the chest and neck. It wouldn't kill him, but it would definitely hurt.

My back arched against the bar's edge and began to cut into the cloth, then cracked my bones with the stretch. With four swords aimed down and the my fans now rendered useless as two arms behind him reached out from the heavy cloth to hold my wrists. It seemed that Bo' Rai Cho was right. Kotal Kahn, in this moment, was not my enemy.

"Strike her down." The other approached with his dagger ready to slit my throat should the other be too slow to impale my core.

Our eyes met. That goblinesque face grit its teeth in a bluish black grin that wormed out from its sharp, discolored teeth. It enjoyed what it saw in my eyes. It enjoyed the feel of it's grotesque bulge pressed between my waist, and took in the moment I had accepted my fate as its greatest moment of conquest and pleasure. Too slow for the other as it reached in with the dagger to slit my throat.

The metal wasn't sharp. It was shaped like a mortal seax, pointed edge, but curved down to blunt ends. This meant the cut would be deep and messy.

Unseen as we stared into each other's eyes, the dagger was torn away in the microcosm of a second in a flash of light. The Assassin turned away for just a split second after as a white mass formed behind the counter. The other on the floor had been crushed by Bo' Rai Cho, and the assassin shot toward him captured by the drunkard to slit his throat with the other's weapon.

"I don't think so." Had I heard Raiden's voice fill my head? A shot of lightning pierced through the chest of the Assassin, straight through his heavy linen and leather coverings to spiral and course through his veins and skeletal system. Electricity arched from sword tip to sword tip as his arms raised in shock and pain. His body pulled off mine and convulsed as its whole nervous system was fried.

My breath caught in my chest and my back slipped down from the counter to my knees that cracked against the floor and body beneath me. The fans fallen from my hands and mask torn to breath the stale air around us. Raiden's hand lowered to my view and my hand reached out to accept his support, except it wasn't Raiden.

"Liu Kang?"

That bright light, a mixture of the lightning imbued within him and the fire that became him. A glance down showed the Naknada Bo' Rai Cho had caught had a scorched hole that burned through the body like lava that peered out into the world only to blacken and cool at the edges of the creature's flesh.

"I was about to save her." Bo' Rai Cho quipped and caught out attention.

What do you say? What do you do? Perhaps the most important answer is who these fools followed.

"Kotal Kahn?" My suggestion was shaken off by Liu and Bo' Rai Cho.

"Kotal Kahn would fight you face to face, not stab you behind the back." Bo' Rai Cho answered.

"Who do we know that strikes from the shadows?" Liu Kang stared into my eyes, the answer shared between us without a word.


	37. Thirty-Seven - Shang Tsung

The empty caverns of Goro's lair stretched deep beneath the island. The only point deeper was now sealed and salted, the catacombs of the now extinct Kytinn. Little did Quan Chi realize as the chain lowered us in the cage toward the entrance, of what secrets I had kept long after Shao Kahn's rule ceased.

Long ago when The Usurper Kitana, betrayed Shao Kahn, I was forced from my island between the realms. Being that I am not a free roaming sorcerer like Quan Chi, it is more difficult now to travel to my home than it was when my soul was bound by the magics imbued within Shao Kahn. It was that magic that allowed me to fight for Outworld in Mortal Kombat, but its the magic I gathered from his corpse that has given me the ability to travel to my island again, if at least to here.

Without Shao Kahn, my abilities may get me far, but with Outworld taken over by two of our greatest enemies, sorcerers like us will have a harder time staying alive if caught. We realized that though we are formidable together, we will need servants to pave the way and all attempts at our lives.

"Of those that I had at my side, I miss Goro the most." It was hard to remember but I divulged some of the stories between Goro and I before Kitana ruined everything.

"He was the greatest warrior in Shao Kahn's forces. Greater than General Reiko, better than Baraka, and even myself." Quickly, before Quan Chi could speak, I added, "and he protected me from everything, and everyone. Including Shao Kahn."

"D'Vorah was a force to reckon with, but her loyalty was strictly to the Hive, as she called it." Quan Chi regained some of the tales of having to work with D'Vorah under the pretense of Onaga's resurrection.

He revealed that he enlisted the agent of chaos, Havik, to fight in the coliseum to spread mayhem and mischief as they tried to collect the Kamidogu, but with them all destroyed, it saved him the time in doing so. It also rendered D'Vorah useless to him as she would soon stick to whatever great power came by next.

Quan Chi is the first free-roaming sorcerer I had met, and the first person to have ever escaped the Nether Realm. His knowledge of and ability to escape that realm alone would be an asset to me in convincing Kotal Kahn to take me into his forces. Under Kotal Kahn, I could earn my right to become a free roaming sorcerer and my plans to control the realms within the shadows would be far easier under the blind eye of a one track minded leader.

Shao Kahn was goal oriented, and stuck to one plan at any given time, but he knew who stood within his shadows and kept us all in line. No one could usurp him, except for a Goddess backed by another God.

After several small steps, we entered the throne room. Here a father was cleared by four great statues of Shokan warriors that all lead to the an immense thrown that Goro would sit on when he live on my island. These statues held the upper level, much like the strength of a Shokan could have lifted the weight of centaur of their heads.

To the immediate right, a fire trap with several prison sells carved int othe earth, for those that need to be burned free of their sin before the cold and dark cells deeper inside, or in preparation of torture. To our left, which is where I had guided Quan Chi, lead to another winding stair case and exit out toward another part of my courtyard, but beyond that, a room that most, even Goro, did not know existed.

The room had a long table, smaller than that in Goro's dining hall, but not unlike it. Chairs like the round table, stood at every precipice for secret meetings. At the head however, with an overlook toward the Pit grounds, another table stood with a map of Outworld and Earth Realm. The two realms Shao Kahn desired to conquer most.

This room had been carved out not long before Goro's betrayal. The Miner's they called themselves as the dug away through stone and dirt with all six of their arms. The Naknada were crafty and great slaves.

"Welcome back, Master Shang Tsung." The Kollector greeted us as I allowed Quan Chi to enter first as my guest.

"I have brought a guest, Kollector, to see what we have been working on."

Though the Naknada were strong and cunning creatures, they were tradesman, not entirely an army. Kollector had served well under Shao Kahn and would do so under me now. The table before him, over maps and pieces that would be used to play our games of chess throughout the realms, rested what looked like a body beneath a thick coat of cloth.

It was.

"In all of my years under Shao Kahn, I had worked on my science projects. This one had been my hardest to perfect." Quan Chi stood back as I spoke and introduced my latest project to him. "The last version was a little girl formed of magic and the blood of wretched woman named Skarlet."

"The woman in red?" Quan Chi asked, he may have seen her briefly at the battle in the kingdom.

"Yes. This one however, will prove to be a far greater asset."

"How do you make such constructs?"

"I have taken the blood and essence of tortured Tarkatans and previously, the blood of Skarlet, but for this creation, I have chosen a far better host to suck the life essence from."

With a slow, teased motion, my hand reached out for the edge of the heavy linen cloth and then pulled it away to reveal the body and face of a very familiar individual to all of Outworld.

"Kitana?" Quan Chi was shocked, no doubt.

"I was able to steal samples of her blood at the battle after I destroyed my last creation. This Mileena will be my slave without any thought of betrayal."

The face was mangled like that of a Tarkatan and her body, nude and nubile revealed Kitana's breasts, bone structure, flesh and muscle, legs and feet, everything that made her human, and stripped away all that defined her as the Goddess she was.

"This Kitana will be my protector."

"You said," Quan Chi approached her and began to caress her flesh as if she was made of wax and not real. He could not believe it as he spoke, "the last girl was a child."

"Because her host was practically a child. Only through magic am I able to bypass the aging process and create a body to my liking. I chose Kitana as she might be would she be younger than the Goddess."

"Like the Edenian Princess?"

These words struck me odd. I had seen the woman named after the Goddess, but never her face, and never up close.

"Are you suggesting that the Kitana born of Sindel is the same Kitana that rules over Outworld?"

"Yes," he admitted, but then shook his head, "and no."

Curious and curiouser.

"Do explain, Quan Chi."

"Kitana and Lord Liu Kang are the creators of this timeline. Crafted it to their liking, but they are not from this point in time. Kitana hides the Princess in Edenia because she is the same Kitana that will become the Goddess Kitana and Ruler of Outworld if she is left unchecked."

"Madness." This was unbelievable, and yet so far from reality that it was almost plausible.

"In the original timeline, Raiden is the Protector of Earth Realm, and Liu Kang, the champion of Mortal Kombat." he continued, though abbreviated. His story must be extrapolated to understand how to change this world's history further. "They defeated a Titan known as Kronika. With Kronika's hour glass, time can be reversed, even destroyed."

"Fascinating, and yet some how I am not sure if I believe you." This was all too much, but in any case, if it were or was not, we would still need to carve the realm to how it needed to be.

With this Mileena, it would confuse the citizens of Outworld, most definitely Kitana, and would be far easier to warp events and people to my liking if I had a Queen to carve it out for me. However, Quan Chi, though a free roaming sorcerer was still left unprotected.

"I have the Naknada, and Mileena," I narrowed my eyes and grinned as the cloth covered and hid my project once again. "What do you have, Quan Chi?"

"In my visions from the Kytinn caverns, I saw a being of immense power, but a being of power no greater than it's creator." He stepped closer and I could see a green aura form from his bare white hands.

"What do mean by this?"

Without another word, Quan Chi forced me back, my body buckled under the weight of his magic and the pain that coursed through my veins was like that of a hook that dug the very souls imbued within the catacombs of my flesh out and into the open world.

The pain was almost too much as soul after soul escaped my body. My eyes were blinded by the green light of their energies and my maw agape as their fingers scraped my flesh to escape and yearned for his power.

He rumbled a deep spell that shook the core of my being until I thought I would die. When darkness overcame me and the cold ground of dirt, stone, and rug smacked my face, I took a second to breath and then feel, like worms, the souls that still quivered within me. Those poor unfortunate souls, in vain, in need of freedom, all accounted for that I desired to be. It seemed he had not stolen them all, but the amount he did was far more than I would have liked.

"Stay down, Shang Tsung." Quan Chi bellowed as the green energy began to form physical matter. "You will be fine in a few moments, but I wouldn't get up lest you be sickened by the aftermath of my spell."

A long drawn gasp of a thousand souls screamed inward as their arms tugged on the stale air around them as if the dust that cluttered into our lungs would hold them to this world. The last soul, as I looked up, my body turned to see this horrid spell in action, clawed tightly against the lower jaw of this mummified creature.

A naked male form, shriveled, dried, and dead by any account convulsed and plumped with both life and cloth. Leather straps, read and black linens. Quan Chi had formed a creature of his own before me. In my time, Shao Kahn had once thought of using the souls I have stolen to form a being constructed of the dead warriors we had slain over the years, but I had failed once without his knowledge. The energy needed to create this being was far too great for me at the time, but for a sorcerer that had survived and escaped the Nether Realm? It was liked nothing for him to tear me apart from spirits and flesh.

The dead dull eyes of this mummified construct began to glow green and strapped, leather and cloth wrapped around it almost like like ancient Kahn's buried beneath Outworld.

With it's last gasp into the dried lungs of this corpse like being, it spoke the words of a thousand warriors that begged for freedom.

"We are many." It spoke with all thousand voices as one. "We serve one."

"You will serve me." Quan Chi was first to speak and its eyes carried the weight of a thousand men toward him. "I am Quan Chi, sorcerer of the Nether Realm, and your master, Ermac."

What foul creation have you brought tainted my island with, Quan Chi?

"With the combined power of a thousand champions and warriors from all across the realms, you will serve to protect me and do as I command without question."

Ermac brought its hands together, almost like a prayer, but formed the symbol of power over peace, a fist over an open palm, and beneath a black and red leather and linen hood, nodded in complete compliance.

"Together, Shang Tsung, we will destroy the realms."

What have I done?


	38. 038 - Battle of the Living Forest

The Forest welcomed them with open maws and smiles, but they knew that its bark had bite. Kotal Kahn urged his army in a diagonal direction so that very little of the forest would consume them before they reached the coast where Fujin had suggested he find the Shokan General.

"Kiss me" Voices filled Skarlet's head as she wandered by the widened trees closer to the edge. "Kill for me." She shook the thoughts from her head and began to let her mind wander toward her fallen sister in blood, Mileena.

She tugged closer to Kotal Kahn as the moved, with Rain behind her left, and the Centaurs at the outer edge of their formation. They knew these forests better than any creature, save for the being they called Reptile, who travelled deeper into the forest well ahead of the army.

Inside, claws scraped against mossy bark to mark his path and Syzoth, invisible to the human eye, trailed himself along the coast with his eyes to the sea.

"Make us bleed." He heard begged into his ear, but he had heard it all before. False promises to feed the forest with voices that howled like ghosts in the wind.

He wore armor of padded green and black cloth, a leather mask in the shape of a screaming maw and as he urged forth toward the foam that spilled from the lips of the sea, his body began to change. His flesh warped from scale to skin, hewn structure of human bone edged his high cheeks and carved inwards smaller eyes that blinked as a human. His head, covered by the tight black hood. His claws receded into nails and as the edge of the forest opened for him, the being known as Reptile stepped forth to observe the scene before him.

Shokans as far as the eyes could see. Many float bloated by the sea, some torn by the sharks and creatures that dwelled within the depths of the sea, but far more struggled to gather themselves to land. The tallest among them, strangely to Reptile, was a female. Adorned in black and red cloth and metal armor that covered her shoulders, and chainmail that rusted from the sea and scraped her cloth with streaks of orange dust. Sheeva, the General of Kitana.

None had spotted him, but that wasn't a problem for Reptile. He made his presence known and walked, unhindered toward the General herself as many Shokan became quickly aware of his presence.

"Syzoth." She greeted him, but her demeanor was never that of joy to see him, and it seemed almost in defeat as they pulled the dead to shore.

"Ko'atal is on his way with his army to pick off the last of the Shokan you have brought and imprison you." Reptile warned her and this almost startled Sheeva.

"How could they have known of this?" The wreck was far from the hills where Kotal Kahn had landed.

"They have scouts all throughout the land." A lie from Reptile, but his words were chosen carefully here, and Sheeva need only know what he desired her to, just like Kotal Kahn. "Prepare the remaining Shokan for war."

Sheeva nodded and began her rally call. What remained of the dead would be claimed by the sea as there was no longer time to grieve and pull them ashore to bury. The men, women, all warriors trained under Goro, Sheeva, and Kintaro took their best weapons from the dead if they had none on them, and rallied to their leader.

"Go, Syzoth, and report back when they are close."

"They are already closer than you think." He responded with a hiss. There was no time, he knew.

They could see the fog of war lift from the ground within the forest as the trees could sense the blood that would spill upon their ravenous maws. The souls that would seep into their roots caused the ground to foam with anticipation and the heat carried it into a thick, frothy mist.

There was no time. Reptile pulled from the group, three backward steps out of respect for Sheeva, a bow, and then he bolted for the forest. His body shifted as the trees concealed him so that he could hide in his transformation back into the reptilian creature he truly was and then he was invisible.

Beneath his feet the ground began to beat like a heart, faster and faster as the march of the Osh-Tekk and Centaur drew closer and closer until even Sheeva could feel it.

Kotal Kahn mulled Fujin's words in his mind like wine in a shallow glass. It swirled his thoughts to think that they could work with the Shokan, that to change the world it would begin where the world bleed. Could he even convince the Centaur and Shokan to work together, or would it all be for nothing? He was prepared to go to war, but if there was even a moment that the two sides could unite against the Kahn, no, for Outworld, then what could he say to break that tension, to be the leader he needed to become?

He walked with Motaro's second in command at one side, and an Osh-Tekk at his right. He lead the army ahead through the curve of the forest until they could ear the water slap the cold, rock covered shore, and the mumble of Shokan voices.

Beneath his feet marched the drum of a heart that beat faster and faster and carried their feet on the wings of intent and anticipation of a new world just beyond the horizon of this cruel and cunning forest.

Before they broke tree-line, Syzoth watched from a thick branch that stretched like an arm to choke the sky as the show would soon play out. Which side he was on, only he knew and it excited him to gamble with their lives.

"General Sheeva!" Kotal Kahn broke the tree-line and called out to the great Shokan warrior.

He was not prepared for them to be armed and waiting. They knew he was coming and stood in wait for action. Sheeva stepped forward with her great, massive legs that carried her nearly like the trees to tower over Kotal Kahn stood her ground at the shore, mere feet from the enemy.

"You will return to the city and swear fealty to the Kahnum of Outworld!" She demanded.

"I am the Kahn of Outworld!" He returned and the trees shook with glee and lust for blood as the tension grew and the vitriol within the stomachs of these two warriors coated their hearts and boiled their minds of all reason.

"Then you will be brought back a prisoner. Alone." A single arm raised, the top right with a fist that then lowered like a guillotine to command her army of fifty shaken to march for the forest line.

As the heft of their bodies marched with great speed, so too did the Centaurs break formations around the Osh-Tekk and coursed through the tree-line ahead of Kotal Kahn and, spears and swords in hand, met the Shokan in battle.

Kotal Kahn and Sheeva stood motionless as their eyes refused to stray from the others. Their armies met all around them and a splash of blood coated Sheeva's left cheek, a signal to her to charge the Osh-Tekk traitor.

"For Outworld!" They both screamed with their own respective meanings and clashed sword with swords.

Behind the trees, where Syzoth waited, Scarlet marched the champions of Edenia that sided with Kotal Kahn toward the tree-line. He let the voices fall down to the ground and meet those that waited their moment to charge, but urged by the lust of the forest, they too were coerced into war. Rain and Tanya at each side of Skarlet as the broke through to shore and launched at the nearest Shokan.

Syzoth watched on as the drums of war barked for blood, and he loved every moment of it.

Skarlet's dagger drew forth the blood she needed as it slid from the hide of a shokan's neck and began to form an orb of blood, crimson and hewn and split into the shape of ten spears of various sizes. The shokan, its massive three-fingered hand on the cut that burrowed into its neck, and its eyes near dazed as it turned toward her. She unleashed the spikes upon her enemy in a fast, downward trajectory. For his own blood to pierce his flesh, between ribs, neck, thighs, and one that stuck into the warrior's left eye, he was helpless. The tall beast dropped to its knees before her and as the blood still held its hardened form, she grasped the end of the spike that pierced his eye and pushed it through the thick skull of the shaken warrior.

Behind Kotal Kahn and Sheeva had a near stand still in combat. Though he began to best her, the arms and size gave her leverage. She was a brute and he was brutal. Kotal Kahn could see moments around them, like flashes of images of shokan warriors dead and bled out, mixed with the dead and beaten Osh-Tekk and Centaurs. The war around them was thick with blood and tense with anger, and the whispers that lifted form the earth begged for more. It was a voice that seemed almost unnatural and startled him.

She swung down with her swords, all four blocked by the flat of his Macuahuitl. She pressed down with all of her weight and her muscle mass matched, if not overpowered his. She was crazed, covered in blood, and determined to destroy him just as he had felt for her moments ago.

The strength of the General forced Kotal Kahn down to a knee and though the flat of his sword held the edges of hers from a clean slice down his body, he could not do anything else. His mind began to race as it rushed the haze that chased him. The bellow of the trees that screamed for blood within his ears. He could hear them and they urged I'm to fight just as it had all of their man around them, but he thought, for just a second, to break that spell. With all of his strength he beat the swords aside and opened Sheeva up for a kill shot, but instead kicked her ribs and pushed her down to the ground with a body check after. He put her the Shokan on point even as he knew she still had him with three swords left in hand.

"Scenario!" He called out through the screaming around them.

She was confused. Overtaken by the spell of the forest, she could not understand why he would not kill her then.

Reptile spotted this from afar and knew it was time to take action. He lunged into battle, pushed Tanya aside and raced toward Kotal Kahn. He had chosen his side, but just as he prepared to launch onto the Osh-Tekk's back, Sheeva dropped her swords and called her man to hold.

"Hold!" He added immediately after and they both, in unison after that.

He planted is feet and stood his ground, unsure of this, and what to do. Everyone around him had the same demeanor. Swords were held at necks, men gasped their last breath, or screamed in agony. Reptile could only watch, just as the rest.

"I did not come here to fight you." He admitted, "Sheeva, General of Kitana, I came to make peace."

"This is a strange idea of peace, Ko'atal." She responded, mildly amused by the idea that peace could lead to war.

"The voices." He could hear them, "the forest calls for blood."

"It bellows from the Earth." She noticed, finally, as the ground began to rumble beneath them.

The forest was not pleased to see the battle had ceased. The blood that washed ashore and no longer spilled on the bark that fed on the lives of these warriors would soon stain and dry. This wouldn't not do.

Kotal Kahn aided Sheeva to her feet and as their men and women stood baffled, a howl pierced them from the forest with a great sharp wind that carried like a thousand needles into their skin.

"The forest will not be sated without sacrifices." Reptile approached, he knew the forest better than anyone. Now in human form, he broke the gap between Sheeva and Kotal Kahn. "It calls for blood, or it will devour us all. It cannot be denied."

They looked down at the assassin, both believed that he favored one over the other, but Reptile stood amongst both and then it hit them.

"Then we will drown it in blood." Kotal Kahn turned toward the Prince of Edenia, who stared back in confusion.

"If you truly desire peace, Kotal Kahn, return with me to the city and make your point to Kitana." Sheeva entertained the idea, but she did not trust it.

"So be it." Kotal Kahn did not desire this outcome, it played into Kitana's hands, but there would be no One Outworld if he and Kitana were to continue their war.

She stepped forward to join Kotal Kahn, and he motioned toward her, she watched him grip his great weapon and pulled it from the Earth, ready to sheath it.

"She will work with you if you bend the knee, Ko'atal."

With her next step, she extended a hand to him. With his, he lifted the great sword and drove it deep into her chest. The cavity split, her maw fell slack with a most horrendous scream as it drove and pinned her into the Earth. In her death, her face, sunken in pain resembled the trees that watched on with hunger. Before any foot moved, he forced her down and twisted the blade to break through her ribs, and cast his gaze toward all around him.

"Outworld will never bend the knee to the Mad Queen!" He bellowed from the depths of his lungs and carried with the wind of the forest's howl of approval, "Shokan! Listen to me, I will give you honor, I will give you freedom, and I will give you death. Take which you please, for from here on, you are free man and women and I will not be your ruler, but your savior!"

This gave them pause, Rain, Skarlet, Tanya, Reptile, the Centaurs and Osh-Tekk all unsure of as he bellowed and chanted the demands of the forest and the promises of a new world.

"You may return to Kitana and fight until you die as she sits on her golden throne, or you can march with me to the castle and free Outworld. Together, we will become one. That is the only rule I will bend the knee to. Freedom for all of Outworld."

The headdress he had adorned with pride, Kotal shook from his head and let it soak the blood of Sheeva's corpse.

"Rain." He called out to the Edenian and singled him out as all eyes cast toward him. "Give the damn trees what they want, and drown them in blood."

The Edenian noble watched as the bodies around him parted way to clear him a path toward the sea and he had no choice but to act. He made the short journey until the blood soak froth of the water soaked into his boots.

His eyes closed, his hands formed the symbols that called to the cold sea for it bend to his will. All that stood between him and the forest line were the bodies that littered the graveyard shore and the water began to howl back as the wind that carried from the scarred branches hissed and bit down upon it. A great maw formed of the sea and raised up in a massive wave that towered over the forest and pulled the sea back until it was nearly a mile out before the waterline.

The blood, the froth, the bodies that littered the battlefield were swiftly engulfed by the oceanic maw that split its legs to forgive Rain and all others that stood before it.

Syzoth watched as the water marched like soldiers to war and then like a giant's fist punched its way into the treetop, through the treeline, and smashed bark, branches, trunks, roots and spilled the ground with earth, blood, and the cursed trees that haunted the massive forest that stretched almost as far as the Coliseum city itself. Kotal Kahn spared Sheeva's swords but not his headdress as all things dead and inanimate washed into the mud and splendor of the forest's destruction.

There was no choice now. As the foam washed back to sea slowly between Rain, exhausted and near collapse, Reptile was first to kneel.

He was not the last.


	39. Thirty-Nine - Quan Chi

It was wondrous to watch the light fade from his eyes. The skin once flush with blood and tan become pale, wrinkled and dried up. It was a slow process, as I wanted him to suffer, but every soul took a piece of him with it. A part of his life clasped in their hands as they reached out for the heavens with the expectation of freedom, only to be devoured by the construct of their nightmares.

Ermac was a creation of the purest Soul Magic. They would be bound to him as much as he was to them. Every soul that he drained from Shang Tsung made him stronger. All of the memories, skills, language, passions, love, hatred, every little thing that made you human, or otherwise, consumed within him and congealed into the mass that was the otherwise lifeless corpse that hovered over Shang Tsung.

Their bodies were in sync. Ermac over Shang Tsung and eyes locked. They say, after all, the eyes are the window to the soul. With each session, the window closed with heavy lids on Shang Tsung, but the empty stare cast down from the cold glass orbs of Ermac would be ever the same once complete.

The goal is not to kill my former partner, but to torture him. To destroy his will and relinquish all concept of power and identity from him. Soon, as the souls edge closer and closer out of him, with their claws clung to his eyelashes that tugged up and stretched his flesh into a pale old man, it would bring us to his own soul. The very thing he has hidden so deep within himself and yet creates the spark within the black orbs of his eyes that has struck fear in so many.

My eyes are dulled. Black and white, and nothing between. We born in the Nether Realm are not born with souls. We are just bodies, meat and bone that wander a world of torment until our heated husks are torn asunder by the Oni that litter the realm. Perhaps if I had one, I'd have felt bad about doing this to him, but I don't.

There was a stool by his side, to his left where I could watch the two one a meter above the other and this ritual day after day take the light from his eyes with my own. Sometimes I would speak to him, but there are no words that could be spoken when Ermac has devoured your very being.

"Ermac is the only construct in existence to be able to feel the presence of the One Being." I would educate Shang Tsung on occasion, tell him about the things I had learned from the sphere of Kronika. "A being made entirely of the souls he absorbs, originally created by Shao Kahn as yet another of his millions of hordes he used to surround himself with instead of fight his battles on his own."

You could see that something would try to ignite within him, but he would always be at a loss for words whilst undergoing these torture sessions.

"Ermac will devour every last soul you have consumed, including your own, Shang Tsung. Then with his strength, it won't be difficult to take over Outworld. However, as you know, it won't be that simple."

Ermac shifted and stepped down from the air to the opposite side of Shang Tsung as their connection was broken. His eyes would glow the brightest green I had ever witnessed after these sessions. Shang Tsung's eyes closed, unable to withstand the abuse it pressed onto him. He would be out cold until the next day, when another batch of souls would be consumed.

Until then, Ermac would dissipate and find himself in some location on the island. Where he went, I had yet to discover, but he was inquisitive. All the minds of thousands of men still yearned for answers, but his will was never greater than his creator.

In the tunnels once occupied by Goro, I found the room frequently used by the Naknada. Those creatures were now spread throughout Outworld to perform tasks specialized to them. There was no need for them here.

Alone in the room, I could overlooked a cavern with the skeleton of a large beast and a two meter round opening that brought in enough light to showcase it and the maps laid out on the table of the realms I had chosen to invade first.

Outworld.

Edenia.

Earth Realm.

The three easiest according to what I have planned.

Without leadership, both Outworld and Edenia will fall into chaos. There will always be people who try to rise up and claim themselves the saviors of these realms, but once chaos has taken over, it will be much harder for any one individual, let alone any faction to reclaim it. Havok, an agent of chaos, would be glad to see to that.

Fortunately, with the sight given to me by Kronika's sphere, there is a way to kill two birds with one stone.

"Approach." The shadows darkened at the entrance as three women were urged closer. "I have a job for you."

Kia, Jataaka, and Sareena. Without them, my escape would not have happened, but they believe it the other way round. Manipulation is the greatest weapon of a free-roaming sorcerer, and something that must always be maintained in order to keep control of the weak minded.

"I will send the three of you to Edenia to retrieve a gift for the Kahn of Outworld. Bring it to me first, so that we may ensure it is placed in an appropriate package for her."

"What gift is this, Lord Quan Chi?" Sareena narrowed her eyes. She was the only one of the three that I had more trouble with as it pertained to that maintenance of manipulation, but she was loyal to the Brotherhood of the Shadow.

"The head of the Queen herself."

No further word need be said. With a careful, fluid motion, I moved a chess piece from Edenia and tossed it to them. It was blue and crowned, much like the piece that represented King Jerrod. There was only one Queen of Edenia. Soon, there would be no Edenia to speak of.

The demons dissipated in a whisper of shadow that melted from their feet, cast from the candelabras. Wherever there was shadow, they would be able to sneak into Edenia unnoticed. The three of them eradicated the scourge known as D'Vorah, it wouldn't take them long to do the same with Edenia's last known rule.

Just enough time, in fact, to check on the other construct created out of Shang Tsung and I's deadly alliance.

On the table were a lot of different trinkets, maps and papers. Spells to study, chess pieces to move throughout the ancient maps of Outworld, Earth Realm, and Edenia, but also one of the trinkets being a round wooden box. Inside was soft red silk that wrapped twice over a white sphere that seemed to glow through the cloth with a dim light that reached out from its fragile glass core.

It was a dangerous orb to wield, and even more so to bare. Kept in its dark confinement, I retrieved the palm sized box and stepped from the light that now faded as the moon curved over this magical island.

Goro carved a grand niche for himself here on Shang Tsung's island, but a great warrior forced to live in the dark depths while Shang lived in the lap of luxury above? It's no wonder he eventually betrayed the bound sorcerer. Shang Tsung did not wield enough control over Goro to keep him from making this grave mistake of betrayal. That would not be repeated by me.

There were two holds for prisoners. One that stretched far from the throne of Goro down a deep winding cavern that held nine cells and one marvelous torture room where I kept Shang Tsung, and then just to the right of Goro's dining hall. Sure, there are scattered cells throughout the lair for overflow, but these were the designated spots for prisoners with the most access to torture devices and other means of suffering that were apt for my next weapon.

Inside the cell, beyond the dining hall, to the right of the entrance, I kept her naked, save for a cloth around her mouth, and hungry. She looked like animal and she was one. Her body sometimes lunged for the cage when I would bring her food, a mortal from Outworld usually. It was not for free, however. Each feeding session meant she would have to learn something, something that would tie her to me, and yet, when I am ready to set her loose onto the world, would allow her to carry herself much like any other creature in existence.

These training sessions were torture for her, as all she cared about after days of hunger was the flesh that quivered at the sight of her. First they'd find some mere glimmer of hope to be locked away with an attractive and naked, nubile form of female flesh, a mate to suffer with, but the moment her jaws would widen and the cloth would fall, so too did their hearts and their bowels, and their hopes for a quick and painless death.

Mileena would be my greatest weapon once she is ready.

"Are you ready to eat, Mileena?" This time, there was no young child, or young adult to offer her, nor a session of education to assure she would stand on her own two feet amongst a crowd beyond these darkened halls.

"Yes." She growled. Her voice at first was just like that of animals. Much like the Tarkatan children before they were able to somehow enunciate into common words. This strange guttural version of language, but she was different. She was already in near adult flesh, constructed by Shang Tsung to take the nearly perfect form of Kitana. Her lips were formed, and full of blood and beauty, but her mouth stretched with scars that clung tight over sharp fangs that would occasionally poke through the seams. When she spoke, it was more obvious, when she smiled, she was Tarkatan.

"Where is it, Master?"

"I have nothing for you here, Mileena." Rarely did I use her name, so as her eyes perked at these words as opposed to howl and bang on the rusted metal pipes that held her to this cell, I knew I had trained her well in knowing something more, something better was to come and needed to be earned.

Her eyes were quickly distracted and darted as the shadows moved behind me. My hands held together behind my back, my upper body turned just enough to see the three assassins as the formed a meter away with a crude and bloodied burlap sack. Once it was dropped, I noticed Sareena was first to dissipate. The others followed as they knew payment with me would always come when I was ready to give it.

"Are you ready to leave this cage?" The key, silver and rusted presented from my hand once retrieved from behind my body. It would release this foul construct before me, a true test of her loyalty.

It should be noted, though Mileena is slim, and often starved, my own body would be easy for her to tear apart. A sorcerer's fate is not that of a fighter, nor an individual plentiful in muscle. She could easily kill me, but these training sessions have taken months to wear her down and months more to teach her where her place is in my grand scheme. She must be loyal, she must follow, or she will die like the last Mileena.

Skarlet was no Kitana, and this Mileena is vastly superior to the child Shang Tsung constructed for Shao Kahn.

She nodded. Bound her jaws in purple cloth and backed away from the cage that had held her for many months. Slowly I had opened it and let the cage door hang open like a slack jaw or broken arm, then stood back. It took her a moment to really assess the situation. It was fascinating to see this creature try to think like a normal being, try to understand simple human concepts like freedom, even the veil of it.

Finally she stepped through. It would not do to see this form flutter through the realms as she was. There was clothing for her in one of the altars behind me, blue and black, much like her Goddess counterpart's favorite colors.

That was the point.

On another alter settled a box, a bigger one, but about enough to hold ten pounds of something wonderful, something that would destroy Outworld and Edenia in one fell swoop. Within the sack would contain the item that the box would hold as a gift for the Kahn of Outworld.

"Retrieve that for me." She followed orders and obtained the box. "Now do not consume what we will keep inside here. This is not for you."

She did not like that, but she dared not defy me. She would have all the flesh her heart could consume once she reached Outworld, that would be my payment to her for this job, but no, this gift needed to reach it's recipient intact.

"You will go to Outorld, and you will seek the Kahn, Kitana and give her this gift."

"Kitana?" She did not know. She couldn't understand anything of this Outworld. "She will take you in, without question. You will know her instantly. When you are granted audience with her, you must present this gift to her. Only then will I return you here safely, and free you from the cage, Mileena. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"How will you know?"

Hidden in a small cloth satchel the palm sized box was retrieved from around my waist and presented to her. The silk unravelled and within it the glass sphere was about the size of your index finger and thumb rounded to meet at the tips. Just bigger than the human eye, and just small enough to fit in the box.

"This will allow me to see through your eyes. It is a seeing stone, and not all of them are accounted for, so this mission must be quick, for I do not know who else is watching."

Through magic, her left eye absorbed the stone and despite a slightly more glossed over look, seemed no different than the right eye. It gave her little to no pain. There were two of these stones in Goro's lair. The other was used as a paperweight for the map of Outworld, made dull and uninteresting enough for Shang Tsung not to recognize, nor desire. There were seven of these, and so my urgency was honesty.

"Go, now!" With that, she was whisked away through green flame of my own doing that allowed her to transport to a warehouse once used by Shao Kahn, now abandoned with his death.

Back at the table, I knew it would take time for Mileena to reach her goal. She would be confused, and possibly like an oni in an ill prepared village. She would feast first, then complete her task. Here I could watch her, but until she truly embarked for the coliseum and royal palace, there was no need, she would be loyal to me as all my subjects have been trained to be.

As that thought pulled itself so cleverly from my brain, I felt my spine crack inward and my thin muscles harden to protect me as my body slammed into the edge of the table.

Behind me, as I turned quick to see my attacker. It was not Shang Tsung, he was locked away, nor Ermac, my construct of souls, nor even Mileena, but Sareena, vile bitch assassin. Several times I had seen the cogs of treason turn in her eyes, but never thought she'd betray her own sisters.

She truck me with a dagger that stabbed into my flesh and rocked my ribs from behind, possibly parted my muscles, but it did not strike vital organs. With a deep groan, I fell to the crowd with a loud crash. Wood, glass, paper and cloth all smashed to the floor. The table turned onto its back. My body climbed atop it as our eyes locked and she prepared what she had hoped would be the killing blow.

"You will abuse no one, Quan Chi!" She screamed as she cast the dagger down upon me.

It struck through bone, shattered the calcium and stuck between white and green energy as a skeletal hand reached out from the floor between us and stopped her strike mid-blow.

She was taken by surprise. She did not expect me to wield this power even though I looked weakened, it was mere my mortal body, girl, nothing more, nothing less. The skeletal hand, with dagger stuck inside the middle finger launched itself toward her and before it could grasp her throat, the bitch dissipated in the shadows.

She formed at the at the edge of the table, where a small glass orb had shattered beneath her feet. The Seeing Stone, now only six in existence, and only three others had been found. This item was not easy to obtain, and my rage bellowed with green energy as it lifted my fragile form and hovered over her as Ermac might.

She was startled and staggered back, but as my hands motioned the skeleton to grasp her, she disappeared one last time in the shadows of the room.

My body fell and the blood spilled down my waist, stained my leather pants and down to the knee high boots until the floor dripped with my life's essence.

This would heal, in time, but it would cause my plans to become even further out than desired. Worse yet, as my eyes cast down on the shattered remains of the stone, my ability to see Mileena's mission through was crippled. The only way now would be to either trust her completely, or follow her to Outworld.

Are you ready to be alone, Mileena?

Have I beaten you into submission enough that the fear of my wrath will tether you to the chains that bind your wild nature?

Return to me and Outworld will fall.


	40. Forty - Mileena

We live in the old chaos of the Sun. Truth is, it wanted to cave in.

What is humanity? Strip away the ability to speak, to form words with even your hands and any sense of culture. Is it really all it's thought to be, or is there something buried deep inside the mind of a mortal being that has been long forgotten by the seeds of depression that has grown into the postmodern era of posthumous thoughts?

She wasn't really a she. She didn't know what she was, nor who she was. She knew only cause and effect, action and reaction, pain and boredom. Was she truly alive to those that saw her as she appeared from a portal in the moonlit streets of Outworld's city beyond the Coliseum? Were they human?

She scanned the skies for moments with eyes that couldn't trivialize the sight of the purple that stretched like arms and grasped the massive moon in a warm embrace. He held that moon tight, snug, and the clouds beneath it pillowed the weight so that it might not fall down upon her and the city around her.

She had no words no speech and no thoughts that could understand or formulate a meaning behind what she saw. She could only stare, just as the rats that crossed her path in tattered clothes, ragged they come and jagged their swill as ale spilled at her feet and suddenly the smell of the world around he passed through the cloth that masked her deformed figure.

The city had far greater scents that overwhelmed her so she tried to stop that cold involuntarily inhalation, but soon she'd need to breath and absorbed it all over again. What she was used to was the smell of rust, sweat, her own body soured in the damp caverns of Quan Chi's lair, and the piss and filth she spewed in a bucket left for her in the corner of her cell.

This was so much more.

This was too much more.

As her senses focused and her eyes scanned around her, she noticed a few of the beings around her began to stare. there were drips of a darkened liquid that began to stain the stone and earthen street. It reminded her of action and reaction. She could understand Quan Chi, and was taught enough words to understand him, but never to speak it. She knew she had to get this to the woman named Kitana, or else she would possibly never see this sky again, smell these rich odors.

There was a selection of alleys to choose and she chose the thinnest and wiriest of them all to her immediate left. It was dark and connected to several hovels that stretched like a beehive through jagged lines across the city's slum quarter until she hit a dead end.

Here, her new cell away from cell, she would see a small widescreen view of the sky straight above and rest on a cold, broken crate. Beneath her, she found a puddle once flat as she stared at it for a moment to see the moon so small in its reflection, suddenly pinched.

Pinch.

Pinch!

Little ripples shivered across the small, stagnant puddle and her eyes widened like the sky that bled down as though those purple arms had been cut by the sharp edges of the clouds.

The puddle danced and her clothes began to soak and the first taste of clean water stained her lips with empathy. Her tender flesh pursed and stretched, the teeth scraped against one another and dared pull down the blue cloth mask to seek the taste of this rich, clear blood.

Just as it came, the rain swept across the streets and cleaned it as it dragged its wet feet across the land of all the dirt and scum the beings that inhabited this city dropped onto it. The puddle no longer danced and she looked again, to see the moon, to see the sky reflected, but upon closer inspection, could only see teeth that crept out from scars that reached past her full lips.

She stretched her maw wide and the sight of those Tarkatan fangs struck her. She had felt them many times with her fingers, her tongue, the meat Quan Chi would throw in her face, but she had never seen them.

She felt a strange urge to cover them with her hand, to see the eyes and bridge of her nose without the scars of her origin, then she raised her hand to cover her eyes, with only the slightest crack to peer through.

If she could form words, she might have said that the monster below those beautiful eyes looked more like who she felt she was, because a being such as her could never be like those strange beings that inhabited this city.

She had no concept of monstrosity, no understanding of beauty or what normal really was, but she didn't think of herself as one of the people she saw on the streets, nor even like Quan Chi, the only person she had known to this point.

The night was spent in this solitude, eyes to the sky, and down the barrel of the alley she stuffed herself into.

As the harsh light of day slapped itself across the face she reached for the warm flesh and then hid herself from its judgmental gaze. Though the sun was warm and energized her, it's hateful glare pushed her off that crate and she stretched out her free hand to feel the cracks and splinters of the wood and adobe walls as they guided her down the alley, the box in the other arm.

A great shadow cast down at her as four arms formed a barrier at the edge of the alley way and startled her. Its dark bluish green flesh stretched up like a tree toward fangs that parted and grinned at her. A Naknada, though she didn't know what it was, nor that it was likely in league with Quan Chi, she panicked and tried to rush through to the left.

The hulking mass grabbed her and pushed her back. She was just an animal to it and the Naknada grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the wall with two arms, the others grabbed her hair and covered her mouth.

"Keep this on, you filth." It spoke, some of the words she could understand, but she was in full panic mode. Quan Chi had given her a mission and this creature now threatened that.

Its fingers tasted like metal and salt and so like with any piece of meat, she stretched her maw wider than he had anticipated and clenched down the full width of his hand. Like a shark she jerked her jaw left and right and with her teeth lodged deep in this tender flesh, she could feel the crack of bones and the squelching pop of tendons before a strike knocked her to her knees.

"Animal!" It screamed.

She pulled herself up and her back aligned with the wall, she was at level with his hips and gazed up as he flicked blood from that injured hand in a gesture of pain. Flesh dangled from it like meat over a caged predator. The taste of his blood soaked under her tongue, seeped down her throat, and filled her nostrils with desire for more and much like a shark, she launched straight up and bit into his lower left forearm.

Clenched tight, she would tear his flesh jagged and devour it if she had her way, but he used his free arms to pry her mouth open and rip strands of hair from her head in a wadded bunch within a tightened fist to shove her into the dirt.

Before she could act, he was on top of her. Like a spider, the Naknada pressed his body on and over her. those seemingly useless little arms behind his back reached over like antennae to feel her cheeks and curve the two largest fingers between the edge of her maw and pulls them further apart.

"Can't even use you for pleasure." It remarked, but the meaning fell blank on her, she was not a desirable creature, nor understood the concept.

She tried to bite as he stretched her lips apart, wide enough for the flesh to crack and her own blood to mix with his in her mouth. Her tears fell sideways to pool like the puddle that pinched with each fallen drop.

She felt torture for the first time. Quan Chi would beat her, but she thought that was normal. The pain he caused appeared to her in the form of bruises and welts. It was quick and it was to anger her, to make her lust for the meat he would then give her for having taken the beating. This was a far different kind of pain. Quan Chi may have reveled in it, but she did not know that. To her it was feeding time, but this Naknada visibly reveled as she suffered.

Two scrawny, bony hands stretched her lips apart until she felt like that half of her face would split and then its own teeth and tongue bit and stretched across the human features. The smell of his breath and the feel of his saliva that muddied the river of her tears was too much to bare. She couldn't move, couldn't form words, couldn't understand anything of what this creature intended. It tasted her fear and loved every moment of it.

Like a spider that plucked the string of its web to bounce the trapped fly before it's death, he toyed with her and tried to find her threshold were the scar of her maw would crack and form new ones.

The Naknada's tongue traced down her wet curves until it peeled open her human lips and reached under between teeth to taste inside of her, the blood that spilled down her throat and the screams that he swallowed with vigor. The taste of her breath, the pleasure of her voice stretched across the sky like a body on pulled apart by opposite ropes, he began to bulge and pressed it against her, just as his neck began to bulge as a spear pressed through it. It jerked his head up and his maw widened, fingers slacked, and her teeth clenched.

There was no concept of time she could trace from when her maw was pried from the lifeless face of that vile creature. She had devoured flesh and veins, muscle and cracked through bone before the sudden taste of oxygen rushed her maw like wind over the river of blood down her throat. The head was thrown and above her a man in simple earth tone clothing, much like the other peasants she had seen. His staff had a pointed end and the blood of the Naknada dripped down its length, as his hand dipped down to help her.

She couldn't understand this gesture and went in for the bite, but he recoiled and struck her with the butt end of the spear.

Darkness swallowed the harsh light of day and the lull of conscious escaped her.


	41. Forty-One - Skarlet

Blood. It sets my teeth on edge, even the thought of it pricks my body with pins and needs from head to toe. This almost sickly feeling in my chest becomes an addiction, but's it's more than that now.

My needs have evolved and what it make me feel as well. Life is not just the river that flows within all of us, but who we are, what makes us whole, hard, alive.

Blood is self.

Blood is family.

My bloodline ends with me, thanks to Shang Tsung.

If Mileena was just a construct from mine and Tarkatan blood, does that mean she had no soul? What is the human soul? Does everything have one? Is soul magic stronger than blood?

Did you have a soul Mileena? Something tangible I could grasp onto and bring you back to me, my sister?

That face haunts me.

Hers.

His.

The sight of Shang Tsung using that energy within us all to tear her life from her body. It's so strange these thoughts that swim in the swamps of sadness of my mind that still find some means to disturb the already scratched out edges of my skull with images that need to drown with the little girl I used to be.

All my life, family was the thing that tortured you, killed everything you were and wanted to become, but the moment your own blood flowed into the life of another, it changed.

Is that love?

Is love hidden in the depths of our blood?

"Who were you just now?" Kotal Kahn's voice broke into the tortured caverns of my busy mind and my eyes opened to find his torn with concern.

"Sorry."

"Focus, you must put all of your energy into the magic if you're to wield it properly."

The blood spilled in my hands and stained my pale flesh red. He wasn't disappointed, but Kotal Kahn expressed through those dark orbs that this lesson could not continue. There was something in his eyes that reminded me of the little girl that scratched to climb out of mine.

It wasn't my place, but my voice cracked and and return the concern I had found in his eyes, "you miss her?"

He took in a sharp breath and his lips pinched, but he dared not reply. Beneath that warrior was a man that still felt the pain of humanity. Perhaps that is why he took me in?

"There will be no more lessons for today, Skarlet." He departed with these words, and as he moved off toward the stone gate of the keep to meet with the soldiers that waited outside, I could feel the humanity radiate from his very being. Even a king is still human.

Even a monster like myself.

Like her.

Many moons had passed since the battle at the Living Forest. Shokan and Centaur, Osh-Tekk and Humans alike all worked together under the will of Kotal Kahn to rebuild this army and society into something that could change Outworld forever.

Motaro's holdfast was big, enough to fit a small village in it, but not so much to encapsulate the city beyond the palace, or even the coliseum itself. Soon we'd outgrow this, and in fact, that was the plan.

Every other morning, Kotal Kahn would take me out to the training field within the walls of the keep and we would work on blood magic and sword combat training. As his second in command, it was now my task to rally troops and scout new ones in the nearby villages. With Motaro gone, the citizens of Outworld seemed more welcomed to the idea of a One OutWorld, but that didn't mean all of them were.

You cannot defeat fear in a day.

Rain, Kotal Kahn's third in command, also raided nearby rival villages that refused to swear fealty to Kotal Kahn, but in my time with him, it was not certain whether his loyalties truly lied with Kotal Kahn, or Edenia. The nights we had spent together, the river of his heart beat for more than just one, but today, it would beat down a rival Centaurian tribe, the last to revolt against a Clan no longer under the control of Motaro.

He was adorned in gold and royal purple, the colors of his Edenian past and position, which was hard to let go of. He traced the training field with a group of three Shokan and two Centaurs toward the north exit, and as he he concealed his face in a silken veil held by gold, our eyes met and he stopped.

This man had power. To nearly wipe out the entirety of the demonic forest that was now more of a scar than a threat, he was not to be taken lightly. He seemed to be taken with me, but my loyalties were strict. This tattered heart could not beat for anyone anymore.

It died with her.

He moved along with his troops and were let out to scout the last remnants of discontent among the four legged creatures. Soon, I would do the same with my group, but our party was meant to seek aid south of the keep toward a small Outworld village known as Sun Do. Echoes of a female warrior in that village had reached the ears of Kotal Kahn, and he was interested in having her join this army, if not convince the village to join us as a whole. If not, my orders were to extinguish all live within Sun Do's borders.

"General." The broad chest of a tall Shokan met my gaze until I traced it up to the eyes that stared down at me. "We are ready to move out."

"Good. We leave now." There was no need for trivialities. No more thoughts of the past. This was a mission that needed to be done.

Our troop was not adorned heavily in armor or weaponry. This was not meant to be a raiding party like Rain had been sent on. A dagger, vial of blood, and the clothing of a general of Outworld was all that I needed to present authority to a peasant village. The Shokan were honorable men and women, but they were not big into fashion and wore only what they needed to. Light leather armor, and fundoshi. Some wore cloth that hung over their fronts with Kotal Kahn's symbol, others had not been able to earn such cloth.

My troop was less than even Rain's. The villagers would not be much to handle if things went south. It was the woman we cared more about. Her name wasn't known, but her reputation grew throughout the villages and quite honestly, I was excited to meet her.

Sun Do is a small south eastern village that had been decimated by Shang Tsung when under the rule of Shao Kahn. They had constructed the island, and much of the regime's more prominent structures as slaves. Fortunately for them, Shao Kahn's rule was slim and Shang Tsung's lesser than even that. Their home decimated, Kitana Kahn had restored it to the best of her ability, to my knowledge, though I had never been there to confirm this. Kitana's humanitarian efforts were always spoken through her and never truly proven. We had no clue what we would walk into, an active and healthy village, or a slavers market.

It would take several moons to reach Sun Do, and the first nights went peacefully and good distance had been covered, but these lands were not safe, even under Kotal Kahn. The Li Chen Mountains had yet to be conquered by the new Kahn of Outworld, but one after the next villages either crumbled or bent the knee. This one was the last before we would enter the mountains.

Our camp was minimal each night. No fire, even as it got cold, and Outworld was always cold at night. As the stars poked holes in the sky and blinked down at us, it reminded me of how small I felt, how insignificant my life was in the city beyond the palace. Every day my body and spirit was held down and my life torn bit by bit, chewed up and spat back out something unrecognizable. The first time I drew blood, I killed my father. Inside however, he was no different than any other man, just like the stars from so far away seem like any other spark of light off into the distance, flame, ball of light, firefly, its all the same. It's not the flesh that makes us who we are, but the mind hidden away in that twisted skull.

My father made sure I could never bare children, and my mother didn't care for my life any more than him. Blood, family, that was just a taste to me, a feeling of pain, a bruise and the melted days that stuck together like hot flesh to coals. It really wasn't until I chanced upon one of the escaped experiments that would inevitably lead to the creation of Mileena that my life had truly changed.

If Kitana hadn't defeated Shao Kahn, how would things have been different? Would I still be out here on a campaign of conquest for the Kahn of Outworld, or still tied down by a monster, screaming for help and only finding the hands of death reach for me?

The stars glitter cold like funeral pyre for the fallen enemy. Too distant to relate to, but the Shokan around me, my troop, and Kotal Kahn back at the Keep, they understood, in some way, some strange way. The loss of Jade weighed heavy on Kotal Kahn's shoulders much as my forged sister's death on mine. She brought me into this world and without her it seems like I'm just struggling to find warmth in a cold, distant light.

Is this really worth it Kotal Kahn?

Can we forge a new world on the graves of our loved ones?

Once morning light touched the faces of the Shokan, they were up and we were on our way toward the gates of the village in no time. Half a fay and the pitiful attempt at a threshold welcomed us with bustle of peasant life. These men and women were not warriors, but farmers and scavengers. That didn't matter however, my eyes passed over every hovel and hut to find which structure was built with true integrity. Those buildings held people like shaman, soldiers, and a woman named Li Mei.

An old woman with more wrinkles than the fabric of time plucked from her old flesh a small story to tell us about Li Mei having protected this village from a recent invasion of thieves. From another wrinkle, she was able to pull out the direction we'd find her, down the old main road she travelled as a young child with her mother and sister toward the temple to the Fire God Liu Kang and his Goddess Kitana. Unfortunately, it wasn't in me to tell her they were much smaller and more human in person than the statues erected to worship them. Her pulse was feint and she would soon pass, barely any blood in her, but as we moved toward the center of the village, down that old main road of dirt and history, the temple and statues became illuminated by the sun and two figures stepped from the inner sanctum of the temple to greet the strangers that dared approach.

Can I inspire the flow of blood rather than pull it from flesh and bone?

Before us, as my Shokan stood behind me in order of rank, stood Master Bo' Rai Cho and Li Mei, the keys to conquering the mountains and quelling the Gods that looked down at us from the temple square.


	42. Forty-Two - Kotal Kahn

Is it selfish to sacrifice all of Outworld just to see your face again?

The walls of Motaro's keep were built with heavy stones and pillars of wood that has never fallen. These stone walls let our enemies perceive the strength that must beat within its heart. It's that perception that must be maintain, even when it is broken inside my own walls. No, not broken, but redirected.

In my chambers, on the second floor of the stone keep that overlooked the peaks of the walls and down through its machicolations, I had sought audience with the Edenian Tanya and creature Syzoth.

As I waited for one to arrive before the other, and to see which did first, my eyes cast far beyond the Centaur Hills to a new dawn that rose over the horizon like Gods that awoken the people of the sun back in Earth Realm where I was regarded as a deity. How far I have fallen.

In Earth Realm, they sacrificed those among them to appease the Gods, but this one is yet to be sated. No blood offering, or sacrifice will bring Jade back, and the march toward the Royal palace was still months off from now. Blood would spill, but as Skarlet and Rain unified this land in my stead, I realized that an Osh-Tekk is not meant to rot in a castle, but to take action.

What can I conquer of not death?

The Sorcerer spoke to me in a vision that made made it seem, though improbable, not impossible.

Tanya was first to arrive. Adorned in royal yellow and block robes of her Edenian culture, she bowed in deference and then approached once given permission. Syzoth, on the other hand, had waited for me at the stone window, seemingly there the whole time.

"One might misconstrue that is an attempt to assassinate your superior, Syzoth." Tanya snapped at the last Zetarren.

"One might find herself in my stomach tonight." He bit back.

"I did not seek you out to hear you fight." My voice broke all skirmishes within these walls, or my blade would cut the necks of the mouths that continued. "I sought you both because both of you have experience traveling between the realms. Specifically you, Syzoth."

"Under Shao Kahn, I have travelled many realms." He nodded and finally bowed in deference as he descended from the window.

"I have only traversed through the portals between Edenia and Outworld, but I know how to travel through others."

"The Nether Realm?"

Both of them flashed white and their eyes cast down blank gazes beneath mine, unable to speak the truth, they made an excuse for why they hadn't.

"It cannot be done, Kotal Kahn." Tanya believed.

"It can," Syzoth challenged her beliefs, "but it has never been done by any creature not from the Nether Realm."

"I have heard of a Sorcerer that has escaped this hell dimension."

"Who told you this?" She pondered, but again Syzoth knew slightly more.

"The Sorcerer known as Quan Chi. A free-roaming sorcerer that Shao Kahn once tried to enlist in his army."

"Why didn't he?"

"One does not simply tame a demon, nor a man that has clawed through the fires of hell to seek freedom, just to be enslaved by a mortal like Shao Kahn."

"I am a Demi-God in Earth Realm, and Kahn of Outworld."

"You are the same as Shao Kahn. You will die and quickly be replaced." Syzoth, though blunt and perhaps too much so, was right. Though life in Outworld and Edenia lasted far longer than the beings of Earth Realm, and we Osh-Tekk and our warrior spirits lived and died faster than even a lone wolf in the jungles of Earth Realm where the big cats rule.

"Syzoth speaks out of turn, my Kahn." Tanya hissed and glared at the reptilian.

"He is right, Tanya, life is too fickle for mortals, and I could not hope to tame a man who has tasted freedom from the jaws of hell." That was all good, and they nodded in kind, but how does one seek this Sorcerer? The answer came to me in a vision. "Shang Tsung spoke to me and told me that his island would be our battleground for the coming war, but he also told me that there was a way to return Jade to me."

"He is a bound-sorcerer," Tanya cut in before Syzoth could speak with personal history, "unless he absorbed her soul, he does not have the power of resurrection."

"Not even Quan Chi has the power of resurrection. It is a power that does not exist." Syzoth hissed at Tanya, then turned and gazed deeper into my eyes than I had ever wished to look into his black and green orbs. "Quan Chi could explain, but he would do nothing without a price."

"What was the price for his loyalty when Shao Kahn demanded it?"

"Outworld." His response was grim. There would be no exchange of power between myself and this sorcerer, but I must seek him out, I must have Jade back. He stared deeper and his fangs bared, almost with empathy if such a cold creature could feel my pain and in a low voice, almost saddened, he spoke, "it cannot be done, Kotal Kahn. The dead cannot return to the realm of the living."

What an interesting choice of words. Syzoth clearly knew far more than he would ever let on, but there was a small spark of hope in the back of my mind that told me where I might find the meaning behind these words he had spoken. In Earth Realm, just north of the Aztecs lived the Native Americans of whom had a deep connection to the Earth and the spirit realm. The Aztecs did not believe them, and I at the time did not either, but in a time like this, as my heart shatters and my walls tear limb from limb, stone by stone all for the love of another, am I willing to look past my own beliefs and perhaps ignorances and seek desperation in another's.

With little to no further information to be gained from Syzoth, I had excused him. He had places to be anyway, and if he didn't, I would make sure he did. Tanya, however, was not dismissed.

"Do you know how to travel to Earth Realm?"

"Of course, Kotal Kahn, you yourself should too."

"I would risk being consumed by the Portal Sea just to hear her voice again, but the turmoil within its eye is far too chaotic to trust that it would take me to Earth Realm safely."

"Opening portals in Outworld, or Edenia is easy, but opening one in Earth Realm is tricky." She replied, but she seemed confident as she turned toward the sky, the sun peered back with hope, "I could get you there, but I can't bring you back."

"I have travelled to and from before, I will find my way."

"When?" She hesitated, she didn't realize the resolve burned so brightly in my eyes that it singed her very will to assist me.

"Now."

"Where will you go?" She had never been to Earth Realm before and this trick not an easy feat for her, and my boldness seemed to almost frighten her. An army without it's leader? That sounds like a king without his queen.

"I will seek the lone wolf beyond the jungles of the big cat."

There was no denial of this moment. No means to tear me from my path. This is what I had chosen, and as Kahn of Outworld, she had no choice but to obey. She knew should anyone question, Skarlet and Rain would lead in my stead. She turned and pulled from her waist pouch a small athame that cut into the very fabric of time with a clean slice down from Outworld into Earth Realm.

The portal cackled and cracked with power and light. It sizzled and sparked like the fires that licked at the skin of the sun. Maws that reached out from its molten core and bit the space outside just to feel the cold death of the universe with its fiery maw and that's just how it felt as my feet entered the crack in the space between realms.

"Return to us, Kotal Kahn."

"Only when I have sought the answers I need."

Her hand caught in the flesh wound of the portal until I pushed her free of it. She hesitated, but my resolve was stronger. This giant step needed to be made if I were to leap into the depths of hell to see Jade again.


	43. Forty-Three - Mileena

What does it mean to live? To be alive? To reach your purpose in life, whatever that may be? Is purpose something you never touch until the moment your eyes close for the last time, or is it something you have realized within your lifetime?

There is no meaning to life. No inherent purpose that beckons us beyond our carnal desires and needs. No higher power to dictate our paths in the roads we're forced down.

Some of us are really born to die.

If she could fathom the meaning of life, purpose of the human soul, or even the reason to be alive, she couldn't tell you, she had no words.

Silent thoughts without written language plagued her mind as her eyes were pierced by candlelight. A small droplet of wax smacked her cheek and the flame withdrew toward a small wooden table barely big enough to be called one. Next to the flame sat a man, a peasant of flea-bitten bottoms of the city beyond the Palace. She couldn't understand status, she had no status, but he didn't look like Quan Chi, the Naknada, or some of the people, he was clean, but his clothes were worn and too old to wear. Likely to be his only set of clothes, much as she only had what Quan Chi had given her to imitate a woman she never knew.

"Please, get dressed when you're awake, I'll wait outside." He had his back toward her and opened the old wooden door to greet the moon she could barely see peer through the cloth covered window. "I've gotten clothes for you. Go ahead."

She couldn't quite understand what he meant by his words and gesture. Next to her was a stool with pink clothing, new and most likely expensive for a peasant. A shirt, long skirt, even black peasant boots that would meet her knees at the edge.

Beneath two old blankets that covered her on a tiny wooden bad with a worn fabric mat she was completely naked, save for bandages that covered where the Naknada has cut and scraped through flesh. There were no other markings beside the bruises from battle, but she couldn't grasp that.

She tore the blankets from her flesh and jolted to her feet.

The gift was missing!

He could hear the rustle and panic in the room, but did not enter. He stood at the window, back to it and responded as she began to tear the hovel apart for it.

"Under the bed."

She dropped to her knees and with her Tarkatan strength, lifted the side near clean up the whole length of her arm and found the burlap sack and box were unopened and tucked neatly under the bed.

"Are you dressed?" She didn't understand modesty and as he entered to find her in full form, looked into her eyes to find an animal had entered his home. His flesh reddened, but his eyes pierced hers like a father to a child unable to clean their space. "Here."

The man, in his early thirties, at least in appearance, looked much different to Quan Chi to her. His flesh was tanned from work in the sun, and had short hair with grey streaks that indicated a hard life. He wore cloth wraps around his wrists and hands, beige shirt and breeches and low ankle shoes that all needed to be replaced years ago.

He passed her with little glance at her bare form to pick up the shirt and handed it to her.

"Put this on. Then the pants, then the boots. I'll get you some food."

This was very different from how she had experienced human interaction to this point. Quan Chi had beaten her as often as he could. He was not strong and usually left mild bruises, but the power he held and the magic he utilized to increase his damage output on her flesh was enough to rival the Naknada.

This man was taller than her, however tall she was, she wasn't really sure. She was just slightly shorter than Quan Chi, and vastly shorter than the Naknada that had attacked her.

"Maybe this will begin to make things right." He re-entered and she still hadn't put the shirt on.

He assisted her as he would his own child. Clearly she was not from Outworld, or much of any world if this woman did not know how to put on her own clothes.

On that table, warmed by the candle, were two small bowls of bone broth. Once she was comfortably dressed for him to get a good look at her, he remarked about the scars at her cheeks, the teeth reminiscent of the Tarkatan bloodline, and offered her a bowl.

"I've not seen anything like you before. Humans don't normally breed with the Tarkatans."

She didn't know how to respond, even if she could. Her lips curled and spilled the soup through those jagged fangs until he offered the ladle.

"Who are you?"

She shook her head in a gesture he construed as a 'no'.

"No name?"

What a strange sight to find a young woman nearly into adulthood with no voice, no language, no name, no history. It simply didn't exist in his world, at least in Outworld and Edenia. Everyone had an identity, even if it was scum, homeless, filth, thief, king, queen, Goddess. Everyone was someone, or something.

She tried to imitate his speech. To ask who he was, but it was garbled, her voice rolled violently over the crags of her teeth. He understood.

"I'm nobody. These days." He gave himself a smirk after the last sip of broth. "Call me whatever you want. I fought in the war to liberate Outworld from Shao Kahn." He added as she noticed the displaced weapons scattered among them from her previous panic. "I'm going to teach you to fight. You have raw strength, but clearly lack focus. Identity."

Near him, a single-handed sword had been displaced and he picked it up, point first, and held it out for her.

"You can keep it. You'll need it if the Naknada are after you."

As she gripped the handle and glanced down the flat of the blade, she had a strange urge to pierce it through him, but that impulse was squashed and her eyes closed tight as the blade fell from her hands. She could taste the blood on the floor that would spill from him, that she would tear out of his chest with her bare teeth.

"We'll start slow then. Hand-to-hand. Tomorrow morning." He could see the animal in her eyes. This was not a normal woman, but he was not a simple peasant.


	44. Forty-Four Skarlet

The epicenter of the war between Shao Kahn and Kitana, Sun Do was nearly made ruins. It was Li Mei and the hard working men and women that put this place back together as best they can. They did what they could with the human spirit in the face of deception, armageddon, and eventual annihilation.

What is it in Li Mei that drove her to defeat, not just Shao Kahn, but the continued invasion of thieves and bandits that still scar the lands of Outworld? What ever passion drives her is what Kotal Kahn has asked me to retrieve. With the only woman to have united the second continent of Outworld behind Kotal Kahn, he will be a greater threat and hold higher claim to the thrown than Kitana Kahn.

As we approached the wooden ramp into the temple where we would discuss it was easy to see this building had seen better days and barely held together. The whole structure was wood and splintered dreams of men and women that couldn't stand tall any longer without something to hold them up. Li Mei and Bo Rai' Cho entered past the threshold into the temple and a silent gong pulsed through the small village of Sun Do.

It was agreed quietly between the three of us that it would be me alone with them and the Shokan that had escorted me would stand outside, never to step on the wood contracted by the hearts of the broken. One last glance back at them with a nod, and a strange sight caught my eye in the distance, between two shoulders, a ghost formed a lump in my throat.

A small figure, like a spirit, barely visible and barely even registered in my mind stood along the curvature of the planet, right at the edge of the village where the gates were forever busted open. A tiny little girl with long black hair, with red streaks just like mine, and a curved maw with teeth that poked like that of a Tarkatan's, just like hers.

This sudden moment, blinked and gone, made me question my sanity. The Shokan returned the nod and I knew this vision needed to be forgotten, it was important to be in the moment, to come back with Li Mei and Master Bo Rai' Cho, for Kotal Kahn, for Outworld.

"Please, sit." She instructed and with deference, I did.

"What does Ko'atal have to offer us at the edge of the mountains?" Bo' Rai Cho started.

We sat on the floor, thin cushions beneath us and a low table between us. An older woman with a face painted in white would come to pour our tea, and it was important to accept it every time. Any sleight would be taken far deeper than intended here in this village, because they have already lost faith in the Kahn throne. Who am I to reinvigorate it?

"Freedom." My response after a sip of the hottest, yet strongest tea I had ever tasted. It was not like the warmth of blood, but more Earthy and rooted in the planet we sat on, much like the villagers and citizens of Outworld in this region. They believed in the strength of the world around them, not in the people that claimed to wield it.

"Freedom is neither free, nor dumb, and we do not accept the words of a Kahn, especially one that is incapable of coming on his own to make such platitudes." Li Mei shot back. "Ko'atal is also not a Kahn, but a usurper."

"He is the one true Kahn of Outworld. Kitana usurped the throne from Shao Kahn, but Kotal–" My response was cut off by the drunken master.

"The title of Kahn is not a title of power." He said after a hearty drink of something that was clearly not the tea Li Mei and I had. He wiped his lips clean and smiled, a little smug grin from the depth of this words that he thought escaped like the wind over my ears.

"A Kahn is a position of responsibility, not power." He leaned back from my response, as though to tell me he was going to listen. "Ko'atal has no desire to rule with power, not any longer. He has denounced his own headdress of the Osh-Tekk at the battle of the Living Forest."

They glanced back at one another, a shared moment, but the words between them whispered to me that somehow they had already known. Neither were stupid. Bo Rai' Cho did not travel this far by ship, but by bending the realm and teleporting over. He had power. Li Mei, the only woman the mountain folk would listen to, she had power. Word traveled like the wind and they knew all too well what transpired that night, probably as each sword strike happened.

Li Mei began to speak, but her words fell like the dead over the thin peaks of my ears. Behind her, a small child formed, her back toward us, but her hair black and nearly reached the small of her back. She was only dressed in a white shirt that reached down to her angles. She turned slowly, as my eyes tried to dart back to Li Mei, to assure the woman that our conversation was important, but even she began to notice my wander through this dream, or would it be a nightmare.

"Skarlet?" She turned as the child faced us, but her demeanor indicated nothing for her to notice.

It was Mileena. Blood flush, face full and very much alive, but yet all the same, I could tell this was not her in the flesh.

She took her small index finger and pointed it toward her right eye, then heart, and finally toward me, but the way her hand held itself was much like the sorcerer Shang Tsung as he would claim the spirits of his victims. There was an age to her eyes that did not exist in the real Mileena, knowledge and worldliness of an old soul, but all gone in blink as Bo Rai' Cho caught my attention.

"Let's be honest, Li Mei." He slammed his drink to break the spell, and turned toward her as he spoke of me, "we cannot trust Ko'atal, but my desire is not to see Outworld torn asunder by the wars of the fool hearted any longer."

"As is my desire." She agreed, then turned toward me, slight concern, mild discontent. "What is your desire, Skarlet? You follow Ko'atal for a reason."

This gave me pause. Why have I started following him? After having been beaten, raped, and imbued with the power of blood magic by Shao Kahn, the move to Kotal Kahn felt like a shifting of the guard. Kotal was better, kinder, but stern and focused, not like Shao Kahn, but I didn't really believe in him, just followed behind like a good little lost girl.

"Purpose." My voice broke. Soft, cracked like a brittle egg.

"What kind of purpose?" Bo Rai Cho asked, but as he asked, I had already begun to formulate the words in my head to answer that myself, because up until this point there was no answer.

"To find a reason to live. To know why I'm alive. To see her again."

This caught them by surprise, myself included. Li Mei took in a breath, tightened her lips and tilted her head in interest. She could see something in my eyes that, maybe, just maybe reflected in the little girl that had begun to haunt me since coming to Sun Do.

"You've had and have lost." She could feel it in my voice as it trembled in response.

"Yeah. Not much, but yet so much more than that."

"An abomination assigned to you by the sorcerer Shang Tsung, so the God of Wind tells me." Bo Rai' Cho was not as impressed with my display of humanity, but he couldn't peel the monster from the human. Not many could.

"My sister. My flesh. My blood. She was me, and I was her. She was no abomination, drunken peasant." My spit filled his mug with bitterness, and Li Mei intercepted to catch the vitriol.

"What he means–"

"There's no meaning to bigotry." My body pulled itself from the table, insulted far greater than any deity could have been had I spat on its alter. "I lived for her, and now she's gone. You don't know my past, what I've been through, what I had to go through just to get her."

"I don't care." He maintained his position at the table and could not be bothered to glance up.

"I fight for Kotal Kahn because of her. For her, and I don't need scum like you to tell me what you think is right and wrong in this world. You know nothing true humanity if all you care about is judging others by how they're created."

Forget them.

Drunkard Bo Rai' Cho remained at the table, though Li Mei stood as my march out was as loud as the gong that welcomed us. Kotal Kahn would be disappointed, but if this was Jade being insulted, he would understand. There is no place for ignorance in the new world.

"Stop, little girl." He barked like a sloven dog.

"What, you pestilent fool, I ought to drain your blood!"

He had but a moment before I truly did.

"We've already chosen to follow Kotal Kahn."

"Then why waste my time?"

"We never chose to follow you." He replied, and then stood, hard at his age from a seated position, and the alcohol stained the air around him, "but you have convinced me."

"Its human to feel pain, Skarlet. It's human to have and to lose. It's only human to suffer." Li Mei chimed in, "but it's more than that to strive for a purpose beyond yourself, even in the face of one that can never be attained." She added, "Kitana surrounds herself with gods and goddesses, with being so far beyond the mortal coil that they can't understand why we suffer, us simple, pathetic humans. Because of that, they don't understand why this world needs to be united under one banner, 'our world'."

"The dead are also part of our world, and the dead cannot fight for themselves against such odds." Bo Rai' Cho added.

My eyes closed, to hold back the river behind them with open arms barely able to dam the waters that carved my cheeks in the shape of this little girl's. As a child, I knew nothing but suffering. Knew nothing but that I was an object to be abused. For the few days I had her, I knew so much more about being human than I would have ever known about Blood Magic if I was taught by a sorcerer for a millennia.

This war was not to redeem myself, but to redeem this innocent child from being ripped apart by the cruelty of a world she just wanted to live in.

When Kotal Kahn sits on that throne and the world is right for the citizens of Outworld, I will find Shang Tsung and I will kill him.

That is my purpose.


	45. Forty-Five - Kotal Kahn

There is great division amongst the mortals of Earth Realm. Tribes kill one another for supremacy of their kind, and gift themselves the land of another's ancestors. Gold, blood, spirit, and water have all driven them to separation, but as I step foot back in this treacherous realm, I realize it is not unlike Outworld.

As a deity in this realm, it is my duty to tend to my people, those that have named me Buluc. The Mayans would welcome me, and beg for my assistance against the tribes that have since attacked them during my absence. Though it is my duty, and my time here in Earth Realm must be spent amongst my people, there is a wolf that stalks the borders of the jungle and the plains. In that divide, between warring worlds will I find the answer to reuniting with Jade.

The air was dense, humid and stirred up by the rustle of the leaves beneath my bare feet as each step took me closer to the temples of my people. Men and women, all warriors, all Osh-Tekk if only to me, would await me with great celebration, sacrifice, and the filling of wombs.

The trail from the portal to the first temple was far, miles even, and these jungles were stalked by deadly creatures. Animals that would strike the big cat should they be given the opportunity. However, few creatures dared to tempt the big cat when, though it hunts alone, is followed by the spirits of those that worship it.

My feet carried over land, and land morphed into hills and the trees rose as the air lifted in temperance, built high over the land and sea. A stone pillar of earthen might would guide me to where I could find the village that had taken me in many, many Earth moons ago. There, on the flat stones that rose with steps to the gods above, my people would wait for me, they would see the sign of the deity of war returned to them.

The jungle pushed back, but my will was greater. Leaves, bark, jagged rocks and impasses nearly impossible for a mere mortal to traverse, all nothing for the Kahn of Outworld, and the deity of war, but as the last bush bent to my will, and the air swept its musk across my bared chest to cool the paint that had cracked between the lines that marred my very being, it was not the jungle that stopped me, but the sight beyond the horizon.

The Earth curved like a gentle arc, the trees folded like bushes and grass that ruffled like fur over this tender horizon, but beneath the hair, toward the dry skin of the world itself, the city I had once ruled, the stones I had once stepped, all were silent. No beacon lit at my presence overhead, no children screamed in the streets my name in fear and wonder, and no men beat their drums for battle.

The trek to this point had been too easy for me to reach, but the journey toward the ruins of a long lost city that I had once built was almost as hard as losing Jade. To my left and right, ahead and behind as I stepped through once beaten paths, the planet had reclaimed these stone monuments of a once great society.

What happened here?

The air was stale and there was an ominous wind that swept into the once lush streets, now graves of memories. It touched each stone, each doorway, each pillar to ensure no life remained, not even spirits. As it passed through me, I could feel its teeth, its hatred, it's pure dark energy. Quickly, my chest caved in on itself and my knees buckled. It would not break me, not Buluc, not Kotal Kahn!

It gnawed on my flesh and dug into the ground, but it as the people that once thrived here, was carried away on the winds of time.

Perhaps the answers to the death of the Mayans and the resurrection of my heart can only lie on the wind that climbed the mountains north toward the dry plains where the lone wolf waits.

Unable to stay, even for a night, my feet carried me forward. There would be no rest, no celebration, no blood spilled and no life left here. The big cat knows when danger is near, and will travel even beyond its territory to find safety until the great storm has passed. Still, the trek north is not without uncertainty of its own. It is something to state that Kotal Kahn had become a god among mortal men, but that is to say I have only seen these lands, and never stepped foot beyond it.

The Earth curved, not just along its horizon, but bent by water as well. The trail along the sea was long and unknown by me at its most northern point. The ground stretched outward to form jagged mountains that claimed much of the land and scarred the planet itself. Beyond these mountains, west of the river that split out into the plains I would find the wolf.

Much as the big cat knows when another predator is near, so can the wolf. It guards the border of its land from the big cats in the jungle that threaten to cross and feed on the land the wolf had carved so carefully. The whispers of its ancestors carried up over the mountains and down through the rivers until the ears of the wolf would be warned of my arrival. Of the big cat that sought the lone wolf.

When we finally meet, I will find the answers, or I will find ruin.


	46. Forty-Six - Mileena

The world is forged in the mind, overflowed with a lifetime of experiences and it is each of these experiences that play the role of influencer toward every decision.

A lifetime of images and feelings, movements, moments played over the black screen of her mind. Outside, she could hear the footsteps of bare feet on wet stone after the rainclouds had swept over the city and drenched it. Inside, she could hear her own breathing as she took in each breath between still lips and a nose filled, like the room, with humidity and heat, thick and claustrophobic.

Her eyes opened to find the darkness welcome her back into awakened world where no true thing sleeps. Her body was uncomfortable in its own skin, pressure poked at her flesh and the moisture in the air covered her like a thick blanket that held her down in the makeshift bed the older man had provided her.

She tilted her head to the side, away from the dried mud that was a wall the bed was pressed against in a tiny corner of the hovel, and found him quiet, still, almost too still.

Her breath had the weight of metal and clumped between her breasts, fell down her body like a ball of mud that slapped onto the ground. She feared the thick air would make her movement too loud as she tried her best to slowly move her feet to the floor and pull herself up into a seated position. The bed was barely raised two feet, just a couple of wooden crates stuck together from a few alleys away, covered by a thin, shredded cloth. It stuck to her flesh and peeled away the moisture as she sat up. All too loud, all too wet, and much too uncomfortable for the effort she had to provide to remain as silent as she thought she needed to be.

She glanced back over to him, in the other corner of the room, laid out on the floor. She wasn't certain of him. He had spent the day with her to teach her footwork, and hand-to-hand combat. Grapples, punches, kicks, falls, and rolls, all the like. Her flesh had become burnt in the sun, but he didn't burn.

Heat was tangible and something she could understand, even when there were no words to form in her mind to describe it. He had not begun to teach her words, but she did begin to pick things out and try to move her tongue and lips in ways that defied the great Tarkatan maw within her. Sure, Tarkatan's could speak, but it would take a childhood to perfect the common tongue.

She was a construct, a mind forged by a creator that had developed her well beyond the point of a natural lifetime of experiences. She had nothing to draw from and no one to teach her, until now. Still, Quan Chi had taught her not to trust anyone, including himself. That lesson she learned herself.

She had not learned trust yet.

Her feet felt like wet bags that slowly slapped one ahead of the other the short distance to look down at the older man that had taken her in. The air around him was cooler than her own flesh, than even the wind that blew in from the streets. She wanted to reach down and touch him, but feared waking him. Instead, she just stared down at the man, his sunken eyes almost like a corpse that caved inward from bony cheeks. Cheeks that seemed full when she saw him in the daylight. He appeared younger under the harsh life of day, but now, as he lay, without seemingly without the breath of life, he was more like a corpse than man.

The dried worms that carved a straight line across the crease of his mouth allowed a thin whisper of cold air out and cracked as he suddenly flushed with blood and energy and his eyes popped open like a cork from the keg had taken from the tavern several alleys down.

She couldn't move, couldn't think, there were not thoughts like, "run", or a need to apologize. She just stared, uncertain of how to react out loud.

"Thought I was dead?" His voice pierced the thick swamp of air between them like a frozen dagger that rolled down her flesh from forehead to feet in a cold chill. "You wish."

She pulled apart a wry smile, nervous, unsure, but then frightened as she remembered the box Quan Chi had sent her with.

"Crate." He pointed.

She rushed back to her bed and pulled the dirty cloth, then the peeled the thickened wood from its tomb like grip on itself to find the smaller box still inside, locked and untouched.

"Rest, the sun will rise soon enough."

At day break, she stood outback behind the buildings that nearly crushed his hovel if they were to be moved any more toward one another. The long thin alley stretched like a bony finger toward a point, pressed into the wall of the city. At the end of this small, fragile world he had carved for himself, she noticed a strange etching in the wall. It looked to her like a great green eye with golden lids and silver hooks that jutted out from each side, like horns atop and below. She leaned closer, took a careful glance, and then felt a cold presence stab her gut an press her into the wet slop of humid stone.

"Your eyes were not made to wander, girl." He jabbed the wooden staff into left side. "Come, distractions are many, and you are but one."

She peeled herself from the stone wall and followed him back toward the hovel where it opened just enough to allow him to hold the six foot staff comfortably at width length.

"You are an animal." His words carved into flesh that knew not its meaning. "You need to focus, to pretend to be like one of them," he indicated behind him, where the streets resided, then caught her eyes in a stern glare, "to fight, and survive. Half-breeds do not last long beyond the city."

"Half?" She mouthed. Her fangs cut down into her bottom lip as she breathed the word through.

He pushed her with the staff and forced her back its entire length from him.

"This is a range weapon, but it can also be deadly up close. The idea is to get close when you fight someone with it, and stay far away when you are using it." He could not fully display it's potential in such a small space, but jabbed her in all the points he had showed her with a sword the day before, even though she herself could not wield one.

He poked her again, pushed at her ribs, stuffed it against her collar bone, pushed her back and soon her anger flared and the great maw widened.

"The One Being himself should fear you." He jabbed at her.

She lunged, but he stood his ground and the staff was tilted to block her right grab for his flesh. She curved around, but he moved back with a swift step drag and the staff was still in her way. He smacked it against her skull and then lifted it between her legs.

"We will not need this." He laughed with dry breath in a pool of thick air. It caught her off guard how cold his breath was and he struck her again.

She stepped backward from a right stance to left, her left foot being forward, feet at an angle and her body made to imitate the slender target of the staff. He came in at a five, an overhead strike, which caused him to pull the staff into measure, just enough for her to evade to the right, but he used that momentum to swing it and clear her the entire distance of the staff until the next hovel jabbed its stone edges into her back, the ragged cloth he had provided her torn even further when she peeled away to evade his strike.

"Forget it. Clearly we were not created equal." He pulled the staff in and set his body in neutral stance, she knew this meant she should too, but instead she charged.

The animal in her threw her body to the ground, he swung for her hip, but she was faster. Behind him, she could either lunge again, or flee. She chose to strike and reached for her target. The staff came behind him, butt end toward her center, only to find thick air and his shoulder to find her maw widen over it.

As she clamped down, her fangs were met with tough, almost dried meat. It was hard to break through, and harder to pull back from. The feeling was like she had bitten into wood. He made no noise, only pushed her back and held the staff at length between them.

"Clever girl, but you are dim all the sa–" She would not let him finish. She had learned not to trust those that struck her as they claimed to guide her through this world. She lunged forth, but found only pooled water and mud beneath her on the wet alley.

As she pulled her body to rest on her back, her hands held her up as best they could, the older man stood above her, eyes sunken, flesh dried, and eyes as green as the marking on the wall.

"You are a failed creation. Not even worthy to be within us." As he spoke, his voice became two, then three, then too many to count, and too much to hear the old man somewhere within the hollow echo of his corpse lungs.

She ran. The blur of the man that had taken her in lowered to the ground in a green haze, but she dared not look back. The door swung open and she had frantically threw the hovel apart to retrieve the box Quan Chi had entrusted her. She had a mission, and he had distracted her. To her, he was no different than the Naknada, if not worse. He doubted her.

The hovel became a small dot in the distance as she raced down the streets of the city beyond the palace with the box in her arms, cradled with fear and filth. The city devoured her before she could realize that the older man had never followed.

Inside the box, she saw the satchel, and stuffed crudely to the side were the blue and black clothes she was to wear. Now, it was all she had, that, and determination.


	47. Forty-Seven - Kotal Kahn

The sun reached down to peel my lids open. My chest laid bare for the heat to course through each vein, and bring my body to its feet. The night had been long, and the journey to the border of forest and plain was great. West of the great river that stretched up into the new lands, but east of the mountains, my journey would have to carry further until the Lone Wolf could be found. How, I am uncertain, but beyond this point, the scent of the big cat would be the greatest draw to any wolf.

With little life ahead but desert and grass that waved with the wind in its blond and green hair, my feet carried further along the bumps on the Earth's flesh that swelled under the sun and cracked in the cool air of night.

Somewhere before the the peninsula that stretched under the land of the bear and Pacific, there was a tribe separate from the Mayans that had mastered the ability of the Spirit Walk, or so I had been told.

They were a tribe you would not find by searching. There was no man or woman that could travel land or sea to find them for their spirits were in the very Earth itself. Rocks, trees, every blade of grass held the spirit of their ancestors and whispered to the wolves that protected them when threats were near, but would they call to them now that I seek the wolf out?

When night fell for what seemed like the twentieth time, my ears had deceived me with the sound of a howl off in the northern distance of this long strength of dried Earth. The moon was full above and behind me, but the world ahead was dark and unknown. The New Land, as it were, only travelled by the Northern Clans to viking the world around them, but this deep? No one knew what it truly held, save for the stories the southern tribes told.

At the deepest part of the night, where the moon was at its highest, I felt my knees swell and then, like a flood, burst to toward the ground to soak it in sweat and exhaustion. My hands reached for anything it could grab, but the land was dead. The energy absorbed from the sun, now lost to the ghost light of the moon.

My eyes began to wander, the water swelled within them and blurred as my body turned onto its back and fell to gaze up at the lights above. The spirits watched this pitiful sight. The eyes of ancestors I had never seen before. Judgmental, curious, cautious.

The sound of the wind brushed through the thin hair of the Earth ceased at the dead of night, and all my ears to could trace were the sounds of the cracked skin of the land being pressed and kneaded by pads that stepped closer and closer like a great shadow.

Before the darkness came, the shadow caught my gaze on the horizon. A great black wolf in the night with eyes that reflected the whites of the moonlight. It's fangs bared, but its distance kept.

Then darkness came.

The ocean threatened to seize me and carry this weary body out into the depths of nothingness. It pulled my body down and the surface, like gentle hands slapped my face and shoulders. Once my eyes opened, the shoreline was a forest, and my body laid still in a shallow river.

"You must cleanse yourself of the bad spirits you bring with you." A voice echoed through the silent maw of a woman that stood at the cusp of land and water.

Her voice echoed the caverns of my mind even though our languages were different, the spirits demanded we communicate. If our lips could not, then our intentions must.

The paint that had covered my flesh flowed like dust down the river bend. My skin bare, my flesh slowly awakened by the cold water, and all the pain and suffered joints and aches from this journey washed away as though the spirits of his ancestors cleansed me of my past. There would be no journey forward until the spirits of this land were appeased.

Once awakened, I could get a better look of the female at shore, and she stood tall at the shoulders on all fours. Black fur and eyes that cut through my flesh right to the heart. Her spirit was that of the great wolf, and it reflected in her eyes like it were her own body. Her human form, not far in appearance to myself, though shaped differently by the plains of the new land. Her eyes stared through mine as though she would not acknowledge my desires until the ancestors were done with their cleanse. Down her form, she had a stomach that swelled with a hand that caressed at the bottom, undoubtedly carrying a wolf pup inside.

This was not what I had expected out of the Lone Wolf, the beast they called Nightwolf.

"You must follow now." She spoke to me through the wind, her voice never to etch itself through the air like a dagger that would break this spiritual peace.

The spirits pulled me from the river, nude, clean, and ready to submit to the will of the wolves. We kept apart, never too close to one another, for the big cat does not walk alongside the wolf. She had no loss in step and could have easily cleared any distance to leave me to the bad spirits that yearned for my sterile soul. As night fell and the second full moon rose, she faded from sight, and I had believed the cause lost, that she had rejected my plight, only to find hours later, the great black wolf had taken her place to guide us through the scars of this land.

The wolf was tall, and carried a full belly as she had. Nightwolf, as she was called by my people, and perhaps hers, moved slower this time. We were close to the tribe.

"You will not be welcomed." She turned and glanced back at me with cold eyes. The moon's harsh judgement reflected in them. "You must find what you are looking for and leave."

"I am looking for a Spirit Walker. To take me to the Nether Realm." My voice carried through the cold night wind.

The wolf stopped and turned fully toward me. The trees that grew behind her in the shadows of night were illuminated by the spirts of fires and eyes of other wolves. Her tribe had come to greet me with fangs bared and intent to kill. The Big Cat would never be welcomed within the tribe of the Wolf.

"You seek the aid of Ussen, of the Nide." Nightwolf approached, her wolf form nearly reached the height of my shoulders, and her fangs glistened in the moonlight with the fire that burned behind her.

"How do I seek Ussen?"

"You cannot in this form." Nightwolf gestured with muzzle toward the flesh of my flesh, my entirety, then stepped back and sat on her haunches, chin raised with a cold glance in her eyes. "No man, no woman can speak to the creator, only the spirits, only our true selves can know Ussen."

The pack snarled behind shadowed trees, the orange flicker of flames and the beat of drums in the background beckoned me toward danger, but the cold expanse of the plains behind me swelled with safer intent. Should I step forward, they would shred me from flesh to bone, but if I were truly intent to return Jade to the land of the living, then my body and soul must submit to them with greater respect than that toward my own Osh-Tekk.

"You are not a man." Nightwolf echoed, "you are the big cat. Black in fur, fangs, feet that have travelled this land before many of our own ancestors. I can see your soul, caged within you. You do not believe."

If my hands could release the claws of the cat within, they would have, instead, my body dropped to its knees, beneath the gaze of the great wolf and the let the moon scar my flesh.

"The wolf lives beneath the light of the moon, but the Big Cat is a creature of light." My words carved the air and the wolves snarled, but she stood still.

"No man may pass. Only if Ussen agrees to speak with you will your true form be pulled from shallow flesh."

"How?"

"I will sing, we will beat our drums, and we will pray for you, but if it fails, my wolves will gift you to the ancestors instead." Nightwolf pulled herself from her haunches and turned her back, the great wolf joined the pack at the tree line as my body fell to the ground, exhausted, unable to go forward.

As the drums bellowed like thunder, and the shrill screams of the singing wolves howled through the broken cage of my being, the night overtook me.

"Listen, Ko'atal." Jade's voice washed down my body to my hands that tried to grasp her hair, her flesh, her soul.


	48. Forty-Eight - Kitana

Dealing with the choices of others is the price of our freedom. In the game of time, there is only one path that can be taken, but how we fall on that road was never up to us until Liu Kang and I created a fork in the road for time to stray.

This is not the best timeline, but it is the only one left to us now. My hands stretch across all of Outworld to hold it together like a mother, as my mother had in Edenia.

Now, the natural born Kitana of this timeline has gone missing, and King Jerrod, an idle king struck with grief and panic. My spies within the realms could find nothing on what had caused this disappearance, but one can only imagine, with a mind like my own, that Kitana would have sought answers to the death of her mother and the annihilation of order in her own way.

Now, as we wait for news, I sit at the council with the only people that know this dark secret to the origin of time. Raiden, Fujin, Goro, and Liu Kang sat quietly at the long table in the meeting hall. Once my seat was taken, Liu Kang glanced over, as though to see if I were ready.

This will be a difficult meeting, for the fate of Outworld will be decided, and the fate of Edenia.

After a moment to take in the stale air as night fell upon us and the torches lit from window to window until the room shivered with warm light, we began.

"My spy within Ko'atal's army has sent word that he passed into Earth Realm thirty nights ago." The news I had laid before the council for them to collect.

"Who leads the army in his stead?" Goro pondered.

"A blood witch known as Skarlet, and the Edenian traitor Rain, son of Argus." As powerful as Skarlet had become, she was not the woman that had trained under Shao Kahn when we first met. Rain, however, the traitor he had become, was still the son of the god that would bring Armageddon to the realms. He would be the greater threat.

"The locations of Daegon and Taven are still unknown." Liu Kang chimed in. He added, "it would appear that Armegeddon, if activated, may not play out as it did initially."

"It may still happen." Raiden added.

"Why has Ko'atal crossed realms?" Goro asked, he cared only to focus our conversation to discuss the war and the eventual battle with Ko'atal and Skarlet's forced.

"To resurrect Jade from the Nether Realm." This was harder to say, as the memory of my dear friend flooded my busy mind with nothing but her voice, and her presence. She may have followed Ko'atal, but she stepped forth with love, and I cannot blame her for that.

"He must be seeking the Spirit Walker known as Nightwolf." Raiden pondered and leaned back, fingers rubbed at his chin in deep thought. "It may be the last thing he does."

"Honestly," I broke ranks for candor, "I wish him success in his endeavor."

Liu Kang caught my gaze. He understood the gesture, the feeling behind my words as we had been close once before and he knew all of my secrets, my desires, my love for my friends and family, but then put his hand on the table and spoke up, "this is the time to strike his army."

"It is." Goro agreed, and nodded toward the Fire God, which then turned back toward me, "it makes strategical sense."

"With what army, Goro? Edenia has sided with Ko'atal, my own people fear for their lives. The will of the people is not on my side."

"The army of the Shokan!" He bellowed, "what army do you think carried you this far to victory?"

"The Shokan," I then saw his eyes narrow as my next words crossed him, "and the Tarkatan, of whom have lost faith in my ability to lead them."

"What keeps you on that throne then, Kitana, if you believe the city has already fallen?" Raiden tried to draw forth from my heart the answer, but this is a question I had yet to truly know the answer to myself.

"What drives any of us?" My eyes struck Liu, "we have not known each other's hearts since the realms reformed, and Raiden, I have tried to kill you in my own foolishness. I am human, even as I have borrowed the power of a God."

"A gift, Kitana," Liu Kang reminded. "I split my power with you so we could spend the eons together."

"Immortality," Raiden suggested, "is not always a gift."

"You handled it just fine, Raiden." Liu Kang responded, then all eyes turned toward me. "What are we doing, Kitana Kahn?"

"Waiting." The only word I could think, as my thoughts fell upon the natural born Kitana of this timeline. She was me, which means she was also destined to become Queen of Edenia, just as I had hoped I could be. She held power in that realm, and held love and faith within the people of Outworld. Most importantly, she understand my path and how we had gotten to this point. "We must wait for Kitana. She is loyal and she will convince Edenia to side with us in the coming war."

"Kitana has gone missing, my Kahn." Goro added, and though he was not wrong, I held out faith that this girl was very much like me and merely on a mission to discover the truth on her own, as i would have. "Do we sit here even as the witch knocks on the doors of the palace with the city burning behind her?"

He had a point.

"Listen to Goro, Kitana." Raiden advised, "we cannot sit idle while their army grows bigger."

All of this was true. Ko'atal had amassed a greater army than I across the ocean, and even if we had the realm of Edenia behind us, that would merely give us refuge, not aid in the war.

Something had to be done now.

"Raiden," his human eyes locked on mine, "for many years you have advised us throughout the realms and through many different timelines. You gave up your power without question to save all life, from Earth Realm to the Nether Realm, what would you do?"

"I only did what I thought was right, but not before making many mistakes that weren't." He then added, with a grave tone in his voice, "you should bend the knee to Kotal Kahn."

"Traitor!" Goro slammed his two massive lower fists down onto the hard wood between he and Raiden and pushed his seat back, but my hand stayed him. He would listen, or he would be asked to leave.

"Go on." I had urged the former Thunder God.

"There is no good outcome in war with Kotal Kahn, for either of you." He added, "but together, you can protect the realms far better than at each other's throats."

"You propose I work with Ko'atal? We have seen the kind of realm he rules before."

"It is tough, yes, but it is fair. He is a just ruler and I might remind you, that he stepped down without question when you proved to be the greater shoulders from which Outworld could lean on." Raiden then adjusted this statement, to create the loophole for myself, "he is not our enemy, and would be a great ally in coming wars. He will keep you as his greatest advisor, and next in line for the throne should he fall in battle as he had against Shao Kahn in the fight against Kronika."

"And if he doesn't?" Goro wasn't there. He did not trust this, but Raiden was right.

"I can understand that position, Raiden, and thank you for your guidance." The next words must be chosen carefully, as it would decide the fate of this realm. "I chose to lead Outworld to protect it from Shao Kahn, Onaga, and Armageddon. To quell the forces of the Deadly Alliance, and the eventually the Black and Red Dragon Clans. I thought I could do that by myself, but that's proving far more difficult than I'd like to admit."

"It's okay to ask for help, Kitana." Liu Kang chimed in.

This was a harder statement to accept than the fire in his eyes when he still looked at me.

"Before this timeline, Goro, Kotal Kahn and I were great allies, and I do not harbor hatred for him, merely stubbornness toward the idea of him ruling."

"Then why are we here and not groveling before the army of traitors?" Goro was not pleased, but strategically he could understand, somehow, some way.

"Because I still hold out hope that Kitana can be found and with the backing of Edenia, at least ensure we do not go to war with Ko'atal, and rather find a peaceful solution."

"If the witch comes knocking instead of Ko'atal?" Raiden pondered, as he knew Skarlet from a different timeline was far different than the one that had been molded by the events in this one.

"I will treat her with respect, but I will not bend the knee to her, only Ko'atal." I added with bitter emphasis, "Rain however, must be imprisoned."

"This timeline will not survive Armageddon." Raiden warned.

"None of them did." Liu Kang looked to us all, with the eyes of a man that had seen the events unfold through countless battles against Raiden.

"Then it is agreed, that our true enemy is Taven, Daegon, and Rain. If not them, then the role they play in the destruction of the realms. Kotal Kahn must be made aware of everything." The indication did not sit well with Goro, but he came to understand when he was told. Hopefully Ko'atal would find Jade in his journey, so that when he returned to meet my peaceful surrender, he too would come to understand. "Let us adjourn for the night. Thank you, all of you, for all that you've done, and all you have become."

Raiden and I had made amends after the battle at the coliseum. It was difficult to admit that he was not the reason for all of the problems that have plagued me since the etching of this timeline. It was my own stubbornness that would not accept that in creating a world of true freedom, it meant that I could not not truly control it.

Liu Kang had accepted this long before I had, and for a long time I hated him for it, but even still, it was Raiden I took it out on, because it was Raiden I could hurt.

He was the one I thanked most as we parted ways. Goro, I had trusted with my life and secrets, but for now, he would have to stand alone and ponder the discussion had this evening. He would understand, but that anger of his must subside first. Goro, my dearest friend, you will find the light in this darkness, just as I had.

Liu Kang had stayed behind and shut the door behind the gargantuan Shokan Prince. He had done so without my knowledge as I stood by the the last lit torch at a squarely hewn window in the stone meeting hall. From here, I could look over the coliseum and even see some of the lights of the city beyond it, but I could not see his intentions as he approached and rested his hands on the stone window to look out with me.

"You were dismissed, Lord Liu Kang." I reminded him.

"I have not been the God Raiden thought I would be." He said, eyes still out to the coliseum, not once strayed toward me. This caught me off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"Kitana," he finally turned toward me, leaned himself against the hewn window sill and looked into the dim light reflected from my eyes, "I had failed you as well."

"No, you were right. We can't keep going back and refreshing time."

"No, not that! Fate only moves in one direction, but so should have our hearts."

It was too late for this talk. My feelings toward Liu Kang had disintegrated, and all that was left was respect for a friend I once knew. To see his eyes like this, the way he looked at me, perhaps he had thought about the past today, and that made him think about how things could have been.

"I don't love you anymore." He admitted. "I stopped loving you many timelines ago."

"Same." My throat tightened, but the feelings were mutual.

"I love the thought of you. The people we were before all of this."

I'll admit, during the tournament, that silly little Mortal Kombat tournament in 1995 was so simple, and so perfect for us to meet, to come together, to discover new worlds that had never been available to us beforehand, such as love. However, I am not that Kitana anymore.

"I miss how simple things were. No Shao Kahn, Onaga, or any of the complications that just spiraled out of control into this awful mess we live in now." He turned back toward the night. "I wish I could go back to that."

"We can't, Liu." I added, "even if we turned back time, you would still be the Fire God that stands before me."

This silenced him. His eyes became downcast toward the coliseum grounds as mine shifted up toward the moon and stars.

"I'm sorry Liu, but I don't miss not knowing who we are, what's to come, and having no idea."

"Seems we don't know that now." He snipped at me, quietly, but those were words with fangs behind them. I chose to ignore it, as a beacon was lit beyond the coliseum walls.

"Liu." He followed the path my finger pointed out toward and then suddenly another beacon was lit.

"War?"

"No!" My chest expanded with elation, it wasn't war, but an answer!

Quickly, I rushed out of the room, and hastily traversed the long stone staircase to the third floor, the open meeting room with the portal doors wide open for all to enter. Here I would meet the public, greet visitors and finally see her again.

With Tarkatans at her side, a young woman in blue and black was brought before me. She held a small burlap-like sack that looked stained in blood, but had been many, many nights ago. Her face was covered by a mask, blue and richly woven like the silk of Edenia. It was Kitana!

She had finally returned from whatever journey she felt needed to be taken and trusted me with the answers she had sought. With authority I stood still, but with glee I smiled and my eyes lit as I welcomed her.

"Kitana of Edenia, welcome to Outworld. We have missed you."

She stood there, as if frozen. Her eyes scanned the surrounding and then looked into mine. She did not have the gaze of the princess of Edenia, but of a wild animal.

As soon as our eyes met, I felt the need to avert, and scrutinize her entire being. The clothing was old, and dirty, scabbed by the streets of the city. She had been here longer than I expected. Her stance was different than that of a princess, and when she looked at me again, I could see that they did not know me.

"Kitana?" I stepped forward.

"You wish!"

The woman stepped forth as the Tarkatans backed toward the door to stand guard. The sack was opened and the fabric unfurled. Out fell from the wretched confines a head that, despite the blood pooled in the fabric, had not rotted. Someone intended me to see this.

The head rolled to face me. My own face stated back, cold, dead.

Kitana had returned.

"Seize her!" I rushed forth and the Tarkatans reacted with haste.

The girl lunged between the three of us and toward the windows, which like everywhere else in the castle, were open and wide and enough for her to lunge out of with great speed.

The girl fell, head first, and waited a painful landing, but before I could see her land, my eyes were struck by a bright green light that formed beneath the girl. Her silhouette suddenly taken by the green energy as though it had pulled her into a different dimension.

Was that a new Mileena?

"Kitana!" Liu Kang raced into the room, but his voice was not thrown toward me, but toward the lifeless head of Edenia's princess.

With every choice a path has been taken from me. Freedom felt like a box to suffocate in. The walls closed in with every second I stared back into the eyes of my mortal self until all I could see was darkness.

What happens now, I have no idea.


	49. Forty-Nine - Kotal Kahn

The night sky swirled like a portal sea and threatened to swallow my mind with it. Every drop of thought that dripped down into the vacant hole of my maw evaporated up into the galaxy above me, snatched by the delicate hands of our ancestors. Their voice carried in the wind, but the words they spoke I was not ready to listen, or I could not hear it completely.

"You are not mortal, Buluc, God of War. You are a beast. Ancient, primal." Her voice filled my head with the background of drums beating, and a string wailed outward toward the night sky.

The voice of the Nide people hollowed out my being, veins flowed with their shouts, and my heart beat with their buffalo skin drums. The drug of of their culture imbued into my spirit and the wolf lingered on in guidance.

"Listen to the ancestors, the spirits that live within the rocks, the trees, the bear, and the big cat."

A low growl, the howl of the wolf, the claws of the bear on the bark of the trees around us. All of it wormed their way into my ears, through my eye sockets, and down my throat. Every little noise, every little beat of paws on dirth, even the worms in the worth as they writhed and chewed on the planet echoed like the drums in my soul.

"Feel your Spirit, become the animal you really are. There is no man, there is no woman, only the big cat, only the wolf. We are the kin of the others. The creations of Ussen."

This deity that even the Nide did not truly understand, was the hardest to feel. So much of their time spent in cleansing, preparation for war and survival, but the low hum of their god still rippled through the ground, on the surface of the rivers that flowed through this land. Fujin, Liu Kang, and so many other Gods known in Outworld could not compete with the whole being of Ussen, with the title of creator. To Nide, these individuals were merely spirits, like their ancestors, that came to watch over and guide them, but they were not gods, much as I was not truly a god in Earth Realm. However, they were easier to conjure, to understand, and to feel their energy.

My body resisted. It could not differentiate the deities I knew from an all encompassing god that guided the motions of this world into the painting it had become, into the people that now whispered their song to me to become the animal I knew I truly was.

"Only Ussen can answer your questions, Buluc. Only the big cat has the ears to hear it."

As the shadow grew over the world and the stars, those dim fires in the sky became our only light, my body twitched and broke. Twisted bones, and then the back. My body writhed in pain as it contorted and stretched, pulled and pinched. Flesh grew fur and teeth cut into my lips as fangs grew and barbs covered my tongue.

"Listen." Nightwolf's voice faded as the big cat emerged from my being.

"What do you seek?" Another voice filtered through the large folds of ears. They perked and turned toward the direction of the galaxy, but the voice had come from all around me, as though the noise was merely the cosmic hum of the universe itself.

_I seek a missing loved one. The one who holds my heart in the depths of the Nether Realm._

"We can see everything, and we can find anyone."

_She was taken from me. Now her screams fill my soul. I am empty without her._

"Death is your gift, Ko'atal. Death is how you will love her."

_Death is not a gift. Do you mean to receive it? To give it? She is already gone._

"Death, is _your_ gift."

_How do I get her back? How do I give this gift?_

"The dead cannot return to the realm of the living."

_She was torn from me, her life stolen from a horrid beast! She is locked away in the Nether Realm, I can find her and bring her back!_

"It cannot be done. It was her time, a natural death."

_Natural? How is any of this natural?_

"A mortal death by mortal means. She cannot return to the living, Ko'atal."

_You are lying! You claim to be a deity and cannot bend the fabric of reality? Are you not omnipotent and omniscient._

"Ussen is all encompassing."

_Then you are an evil God._

"It cannot be done."

_I will do it myself!_

The fog of the universe lifted like a veil from my eyes and the sight of the foul creature Nightwolf still sat in place focused under the light of the full moon. My body, larger, longer, and filled with grief and anger pulled itself from the traitorous Earth and as such, Nightwolf backed away a step. The eyes that glowed along the tree line lurched forward as my claws dug in to scar the planet that had betrayed me, and my fangs bared as Nightwolf lowered her posture, ready to defend against the big cat.

"We will tear you heart from flesh, should you step any closer, Buluc." She warned and the howl of the wolves broke through the bark of the tree, the hollow air around us thick with the war drums of the Nide people.

"I will tear your people apart, mother from child, child from the living, and warriors from their hearts." My threat pierced through the barbed forest of my tongue and the fingers that opened wide to bare completely toward the pack.

As my body lowered, ready to strike, and Nightwolf's mirrored in defense, a strange green energy, like a lightning bolt, shot past my right shoulder. It formed a skull in the thick air and devoured a wolf to the right of Nightwolf with its skeletal teeth that chewed the body until the energy dissipated and all that remained was a lifeless corpse.

We looked behind to find a man, painted in black and white three meters from me, spikes on his shoulders, an another skull that formed between the circular motions of hands. This time, an skeleton had raised from the earth in the form of light, and then another, and another and each, as soon as they emerged, charged the wolf pack.

Nightwolf lunged for my throat and my great claws swatted the beast from the air. My own maw clenched down on the pregnant stomach of the giant wolf, then as she reached from my leg with her teeth bared, my maw met her neck and clamped down. Around us, two wolves nipped at my tail and my hind limbs, but my focus was on Nightwolf.

The free-roaming sorcerer moved forward a step as his skeletons met the wolves in battle and charged past the trees toward the tribe's village. One wolf lunged past a skeleton with a sword that came down with an overhead strike, but before it could reach the scrawny white sorcerer, a wall of skulls cracked open a fissure in the earth and erected a barrier that then collapsed on the wolf.

"Our spirits will seek vengeance on you!" Nightwolf screamed and gurgled as my fangs dug into her neck, and my claws ripped open her stomach.

"Death is my gift!" My maw twisted and contorted the meat and bone between it until the neck had snapped and the wolf fell to the earth a lifeless human corpse, baby torn from mother.

The next wolf lunged for my tail, but the sorcerer had plucked the beast with skeletal hands from the very Earth and flung the beast into the bark of the nearest tree where it bent and cracked on impact.

"Come with me, Kotal Kahn, and I will help you find Jade!" The sorcerer approached with haste and knelt before me, my body still shaped as the big cat.

"Who are you?"

"I am the sorcerer Quan Chi"

"From the Nether Realm."

"The only sorcerer to escape hell itself."

My eyes scanned the horizon. The skeletons dissipated one after the other as the wolves targeted them in packs. Soon they would be on us and the war drums grew louder and louder, the screams of their people scratched my ears and filled the night sky with anger and grief. There was nothing left for me here, the Spirit Walker had failed me, but the sorcerer may yet prove to be reliable.

"I will do anything you ask of me, Quan Chi," I kneeled as my human form broke from the fur and the bones of the big cat. "Just bring her back to me."

He nodded, and began to groan a strange language and as his hands moved, the green energy formed a sphere that quickly encapsulated us and as it shrank, I believed our bodies might be crushed, but instead, pulled us from this realm.

_Death is your gift._ Ussen said to me.

Death will be my gift to all whom stop me from reaching Jade.


	50. Fifty - The Battle for Outworld Part 1

Water slapped the rocky shore and bow of the ship that contained the army of Kotal Kahn. The sea knew the ship would soon sail and tested its strength with strikes from every side that curved like jabs toward the shore where the fists would bleed foam from the hard impacts. Skarlet watched from the stern as the mainmast slapped back against the wind and the pillar that held it together all the way to the main royal swayed. It left a pit in her stomach that she had not felt even when they arrived, nor when they battled the Sheeva's army.

She was adorned in all leather, black and red from high boots to long gloves that nearly extended up toward her elbows. She could be mistaken for a pirate if the sails were black and the skull flailed in the wind as opposed to Kotal Kahn and Quan Chi's symbols.

The sea did struggled to attack the stern, though closest to shore, was also where the sorcerer's insignia flew. Skarlet herself was not sure of the ominous symbol that waved overhead, but ahead, near the bowsprit, Kotal and Quan Chi stood with Rain and Jataaka. She would not question Kotal Kahn's inclusion of the free-roaming sorcerer, so long as his involvement earned them Outworld, but from her time with Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung, she had heard treacherous whispers of this being from the Nether Realm.

Kotal Kahn turned to meet her stare from across the ship and dismissed himself from Quan Chi's presence, but with him came Rain of Edenia.

"Are you ready to set sail, my Kahn?" She asked and paid deference to him, but not to Rain.

"Kitana will see the ship well before we land. The element of surprise is not with us." He responded, and turned back to the cold, violent sea. "However, the surprise is not my intentions to land in the city of the great palace."

"What are you thinking?" Rain interjected, eyes scrutinized Skarlet and narrowed, but Kotal Kahn ignored him and pushed further with the conversation he had started.

"You will be with me in the capturing of the main palace, where the Goddess awaits us." He stole Skarlet's gaze from Rain.

"Yes, my Kahn."

"There can be no failure in capturing her."

"With the fall of the Edenian Goddess, so too will her allies." Rain added.

"Yes, but she is not the only deity present."

"No god threatens me." Kotal declared, fire burned in his eyes, a great flare that caught Skarlet off guard.

"We must set sail, Kotal Kahn." Rain pulled away and recused the Kahn from Skarlet's presence. "Quan Chi beckons our presence."

She watched as they parted. Kotal had nodded to her as he had is other soldiers and commanders, his eyes stern and distant. She couldn't tell if he had even seen her this entire conversation, but Rain was certainly focused on her. The nerves beneath her flesh quivered and plucked like the string of a rusted bow. Kotal Kahn granted Quan Chi deference she should have received, as if he was of a higher station than even the Kahnum of Outworld.

She must discover the sword of Damocles the sorcerer held over Kotal Kahn's head.

Kitana watched over the city from the highest point in the tower. The prison cells that held her most dangerous political enemies. Once home to Shao Kahn, now caged her thoughts on the looming war. For all her power and experience, to lose Outworld and Edenia all at once was something she could not prepare for.

Behind her, Raiden stood and watched over her, with little interest in the city below. When she could stay in her thoughts no longer, she turned to him, and stared deep into those aged human eyes.

"Ships travel fast over water, Raiden," she added, "but word travels faster over the wind."

"It does." He agreed.

"Are we certain my spy has been honest with Fujin in this report?"

"Ko'atal travels with the vile sorcerer Quan Chi. Even your spy despises him."

She turned back around and expelled a heavy breath. She let her hand meet her lips to hold in her thoughts, and watched again as the city below, busy, and lively, waited for destruction with blissful ignorance.

"This changes everything, Raiden."

"How will you act?"

"This means Ko'atal failed to resurrect Jade."

"Did you ever think he would succeed."

Her shoulders dropped and her eyes scanned back for his, hurt, but understood what he implied.

"I had hoped he would be the first."

"Kronika is no longer here to bend the moral fabric of reality. Jade is gone, and who ever falls in this battle will also never return."

"So we must make this fight matter."

"War is not always the answer You may still be able to reason with Ko'atal."

"I pray you're right, Lord Raiden"

Far from the palace that overlooked the city, and even hidden from the city that begged beneath the feet of the Coliseum walls, the Shokan army were encamped.

Here, Goro pressed one large foot down into mud after the next and left a trail from the city toward his own kind.

There were less Shokan now with the destruction and betrayal of Sheeva's half, but he trusted the ones that watched as he entered through the wooden gate into the training ground. Here there would be battles, tests of might, and speeches to rile and empower his people. Today, however, he looked around, his lower knuckles rested on his hips as the top arms folded across his chest, and he saw Shokan that stood, lingered, loitered, all aimless and uncertain.

Word had gotten around that Kitana, Goddess of Edenia and Kahnum of Outworld would bend the knee to Ko'atal. This did not sit well with the loyal Shokan that had stayed behind to defend her. This did not sit well with Goro, her most trusted ally.

"Form rank!" He called out them and they were quick to gather.

The sight before him was not the army he and Kitana had tirelessly constructed. He eyed each of them and they returned the cold glare until one broke rank and spoke out of turn.

"The Kahn will betray us, Commander."

As he spat at the outcast for treason, he couldn't help but feel a hand claw at his stomach and tear it open as that same sentiment spilled into his guts. He forced officer toward the back with the foot soldiers, lucky not to slain. In truth, their army was slim, the Tarkatan were greater even without Baraka. The battle at the Living Forest had halved them and now as the echoes swept through the wind of Kitana's possible defeat, even Goro started to feel the wear and tear within the army.

He maintained posture, decided that she would not go through with it, even if it were Raiden's council. Even though he heard her say it. He could see a fissure between the Shokan and their long trusted ally form and part into a great canyon before his eyes.

This will not do.

He would need certainty.

The ship sailed over a haunted sea of mist and stale air. It felt like a skeleton would reach up and choke the break out of her when she peered over into the black abyss of the sea. With Quan Chi on board, that may even happen, she thought and slowly reeled back.

With Quan Chi came two assassins that were allegedly born in the Nether Realm and escaped with the aid of the free-roaming sorcerer. She kept an eye on them, on the sorcerer, but most of all on Kotal Kahn.

The bowsprit stabbed through the stale air and heavy mist like steel through the chests of their enemies. Kotal Kahn watched in solitude as it cut deeper and deeper before him. Skarlet waited until behind her, two of the Shokan that had come up after a drink had gone back down, and the assassin Kia, who also seemed interested in the actions of Kotal Kahn disappeared from view. She was not pleased with these new developments and had yet to get time alone with the Kahnum of the new world. Now would be her chance and she walked toward him. She approached from starboard, but before she could reach even half the distance between them, the vile, pale sorcerer's voice broke through the dense air and she stopped dead in her tracks.

"The Kahnum must focus." Quan Chi, with his deep voice and frail figure sank into her from ears to the pit of her stomach. She did not understand the sorcerer's intentions, nor did she care to. His eyes narrowed down at her, arms folded to tighten the grip on the spikes that adorned his leather pauldrons.

"I am second in command of this army, I will not follow orders from you." She turned and spat, her voice low as though any higher might awaken the skeleton that desired to drag her into the sea.

"Of this army, but not of Outworld." His tone struck her as though she were a bug, smeared and scarred across the salt stained deck of the ship. She could hear the insignificance of her own existence in his voice.

She didn't know how to respond to this. Her blood began to boil and all she could think of was to drain his into the black ocean below, but knew she couldn't. Quan Chi was too important to Kotal Kahn, more important perhaps than Outworld itself, certainly more than her. He was the key to Jade, and that's all that mattered to him now.

In that moment, she realized just how lost their cause was. If Kotal Kahn had no real interest in the unification of Outworld, then he would fail to defeat Kitana. She must remind him why he had set himself on this journey. Jade would not want his path to stray on her accord.

"You will go to your quarters, little blood mage, and wait for the ship to land. Then you will make use of yourself." Quan Chi stepped closer with those big black boots that knocked on the wood as he tried to tower over her, despite his thinner, frailer form.

The wind began to pick up and it scraped like blunt knives over her bare neck and arms, but did not scathe Quan Chi. She could feel a crack and tap at the bottom of the ocean, somewhere in the cogs of her mind as a skeleton began to climb like spiders up from beneath the depths to drag her under.

She could no longer tolerate his presence. Her chest thickened with anxiety, and her breath started to grow heavy over the hot flow of bitter blood.

She noticed another pair of eyes upon her and turned toward port side to find the two assassins, ever watchful, like carrion crows that waited for a corpse to fall.

Skarlet took three steps back from Quan Chi, but paid no deference as she retreated beneath the deck. He followed her with long slow strides until the door closed behind her.

"We will break her."

In the Coliseum she trained. In the same spot she once killed Shao Kahn in the timeline that gave way to this. In the same spot she saw her mother die. The only spot she could find a reason to shove her body to move and work out the motions of combat.

Kitana folded and unfolded her fans, she step dragged to the left, swung with her right, and then performed a cover to turn around and strike with her left toward an invisible target.

Here she could concentrate and let her thoughts run the many paths she had chosen, and the roads still yet to be travelled. So many timelines, so many ways to save the realms and yet still destruction was imminent.

Fate cannot be controlled.

All things must come to an end.

How it all ends does not matter to Fate.

Dust kicked up onto her black and blue boots and the familiar scent of battle and desert sand filled her nostrils. Every war, every tournament, each man and woman that stood here before her and Shao Kahn rushed through her mind like a fog she was forced to race through to find the clarity she desired. She was still uncertain where that clarity was and if she would recognize it, but she raced, and her fans cut, and her feet danced in mortal combat until suddenly as she struck the air with a right jab, fans folded down like a dagger, a huge force grasped and stopped her in her place.

"Goro!" She was startled, but was never frightened by the sight of him.

"Kitana Kahn, spare me a moment of your time." He released her to pay deference with a bow that offered his neck.

"For you, a lifetime." She responded and stepped back into a neutral stance, fans tucked away on her belt straps.

"Have you given more consideration to Ko'atal's invasion?"

She took a moment to answer, the fog of that decision still had not been cleared, even as she felt it stronger to defend the city against the coming army.

"The sorcerer Quan Chi travels with Ko'atal. I will never let this city fall to the likes of him." This was too vague an answer for Goro and he pressed forth.

"The Shokan are unsettled by the idea of surrender."

"I can feel that you are as well, and so am I, Goro, but I assure you, there will be surrender as long as Quan Chi stands with Ko'atal."

So many indications, and a thick cloud of vague intentions frothed up between them. The idea that only Quan Chi would convince her not to maintain the loyalty she had worked so hard to earn with the Shokan insulted him, but perhaps it was more complicated than that. He didn't like complications, combat was easier, good and bad, dead or alive. With her words chosen, he chose to hope that Quan Chi did stand with Ko'atal when they stormed the city.

"It's hard to tell you how I feel." She broke through his thoughts.

"You have told me everything up to this point, my Kahn."

"Not everything, but certainly more than I had ever shared with Raiden or Liu Kang."

Understandable, but he pressed her for more. There was a cyst beneath her flesh that needed to be lanced and he believed it might let flow the information that would help him, as well as his army, understand her position, or where they fell in this whole situation.

"You can tell me everything." He assured her, "I have never judged you for it."

She gave him a playful glare.

"At least not spoken." He returned in kind, but he was serious still, this wasn't time even for a crack of light to break the dark clouds above them.

"Then keep this locked deep within you, Goro."

He nodded and folded his arms, all ears for her.

The room sloshed to and fro and the water steadily angered the closer they reached the city beyond the palace. It felt like the turmoil that churned in her stomach, and swirled within her mind. Skarlet lay in the stiff bed within her quarters, which she had found to be smaller than even Quan Chi's assassins. Wooden bed, some space to move from there to the door, and a wooden keg she had her weapons and clothes in when not needed.

For now she was in a simple black and red tunic, leather belt and black pants, much unlike the style of the women in the city, she was more in tune with utility than societal norms. Her boots tapped the wood and her arms were crossed beneath her breasts.

It felt like betrayal.

She had worked hard to escape her life within the city, and then Shao Kahn, then the Coliseum, and now here she was laid out in another cell. Each moment in time she had found herself in hell and with no way of escape. Was her pain not ashamed to repeat itself?

Bang!

Bang!

Two loud knocks at the door nearly broke it open. A sturdy metal latch was all that kept it together, and her quarters private. She didn't need to hear who was on the other side, no need to ask. Skarlet wrinkled her nose in disgust scent of the Edenian Tanya and refused her entry with silence.

"We need to speak."

Silence.

She could hear the cackle of paper being crumbled and then stuffed underneath the cracks of the door. She did not idle. Skarlet collected the paper to find Tanya had written that she too was under threatening eye of Quan Chi and requested she meet even further below the ship where the cargo and food had been stored.

She crumpled it tighter than Tanya had and then heard the Edenian's footsteps swiftly fade down the corridor. After minutes of silence had passed with only the wind and water to move her in the small cabin, she chose to go for it.

Slowly she began to descend into the darkness of the cargo hold. No candlelight, nor magic to illuminate the way. Just sweat to neatly squish between boot and wood, and the musty smell of crates mixed with the odor of near rotten food to beckon her down with each careful step.

"No one followed you?" Tanya whispered.

Skarlet couldn't see, but it sounded as though the Edenian was to her far left. The hold was big, for the Shokan and Centaurs demanded a lot, which meant there were plenty of places for the Edenian to hide.

"No." She replied.

"He will find out eventually." Tanya returned.

"Then I would like to know before he does."

She moved through the darkness. Her hands to the front as they traced corners and surfaces of metal, meat, and salted flesh until Tanya's voice was closer than her footsteps.

"It is not Outworld he desires." Tanya whispered of Quan Chi, afraid any louder and he would crush her throat before Skarlet would even hear her words.

"I do not care what he wants."

There was a pause, then Tanya added with slight indignation, "then you are foolish, Outworlder!"

"I care about Kotal Kahn, and the Outworld he chose to build, and of myself."

"There will not be an Outworld. No you, if Quan Chi succeeds."

"Tell me then," Skarlet could feel Tanya's breath on her and as she asked for the information, looked around her as though a door would open and the assassins would enter at any moment.

"Have you heard of Argus?"

"The deity?"

"The Father of Armageddon."

"An old Edenian myth."

Tanya reached out to clutch Skarlet's chin and drag her closer, "a myth Quan Chi believes he can make real. Take this seriously, it will save you."

She was pushed back against a massive keg, the sound startled both, and a moment of pause without a single breath from either followed silence and then confidence to continue.

"Quan Chi has no desire to take Outworld from Kotal Kahn. He desires Nothing."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You and I, Kotal Kahn, Outworld, the realms as we know them, and time itself. All of it will cease to exist."

"Quan Chi does not have the power to end time."

"Not now. He seeks the key to unlocking the chain reaction that will lead to Armageddon."

"A key?"

"I do not know where it is, but I do know that someone on this ship does."

"Kotal Kahn?"

"No."

This was a lot to absorb. It was a lot to believe and she wasn't sure if she did. Tanya was not the most trusted ally, but she had served Kotal Kahn well enough in Skarlet's eyes. She would have to validate this information, but had no clue as to how. Still, she had one last question before they would return to the surface, and the watchful eyes of Quan Chi and his assassins.

"How do you know?"

"I lurk."

"Why tell me, for you know I am second in command of this army and would surely tell Kotal Kahn of this treachery."

"Was second in command. Now, and possibly sooner than you think, you are nothing."

The door to the cargo hold breathed vile light into the abyss and a shipmate, human, walked down to retrieve food for the centaurs. Skarlet and Tanya stood, breathless, and still.

This was too much for her. Too much to digest, too much to formulate an immediate response to. Was it true? If Bo Rai' Cho and Li Mei had chosen to travel by ship, she would just ask them, as the old master had close ties to Fujin and Liu Kang, who might know better than even Quan Chi, but unfortunately at the sight of the sorcerer, they chose to travel with the wind, and would not participate in the fight along side the pale sorcerer.

Tanya had indicated there was one person on this ship that held locked the truth inside of them, but who could it be?

The hair crashed down onto the ground like a millions daggers that stabbed away at Goro's flesh with every step through the courtyard of the palace. He was about as certain about his fate as not, and his position still entangled between his loyalty to Kitana, and Shokan. He arched his back and glared up at the blackened clouds that cracked and crushed themselves to bleed those tiny daggers.

Just rain.

Outworld was used to storms. They would come and go, from rainfall to hurricanes, drought and more. This one seemed different, much more ominous, but he shrugged it off.

Soaked to the bone, he slammed the door of his chambers three stories beneath the surface, where most of the Shokan resided. Here were interwoven throughout the palace grounds chambers of stone that almost mirrored his lair on Shang Tsung's island, but so much more decadent. He was more than a prince under Kitana, he was her Prince. Ruler of Outworld should anything befall her, not that he'd ever wish it, but these days, he wondered how he'd handle the same situation she was in.

For years he worked along side General Reiko in Shao Kahn's extermination squads and together they rendered whole realms barren of life. Now Reiko was nothing more than a solider in the army of many, but Goro had risen up in the ranks thanks to Kitana. His loyalty to her matched that toward the Shokan, and to see the two tear him for that loyalty tore him deeper than any sword could.

A knock came at his door, heavy and high up on the wood. A Shokan. He was greeted by one of his generals, one that had seen Outworld before Kitana, and after, just as Goro had. He had a stern look about him and entered once Goro opened the door, then closed it firm behind him. No one needed to hear this conversation.

"You spoke with Kitana?"

"Kitana Kahn, to you, General." Goro corrected him.

The Shokan nodded and tightened his lips, "apologies, commander. I spoke out of turn, but my honor and loyalty to the Shokan, to our people, has a greater hold of me than this Kahn."

"Do you prefer the rule of Shao Kahn? Who treated us like slaves and pawns in his wars?"

Goro glared, and bared his teeth for a moment, sharp like a dragon. The Shokan General nodded and acknowledged this second misstep.

"Forgive me, Commander Goro, Prince Goro."

Goro ignored him to instead slip an open flame from a oiled string to light as many candles around them until the General's face was clear enough to see.

"I did speak with Kitana Kahn, and she assured me that she stands against Ko'atal and is army." Goro turned toward the General as he spoke, he needed to see the Shokan's reaction.

"Is that so?" Disbelief was expected, but also indignation. Curious to Goro that the General would seem upset by this news that the army had so desperately sought.

"What is wrong, General? Not what you had hoped?"

"No, I am glad, it is just that our lives are in her hands, and she flips them so often."

"She does not flip her hands, General." Goro added, "every decision is carefully thought out, with advisement from the council."

"The council? Raiden and the Fire God?"

"As well as myself. The voice of the Shokan."

"So, tell me, Goro, what did your voice say when she chose to submit to Ko'atal?"

Raiden had advised her to bend the knee and swear fealty to Kotal Kahn, and Gore had deeply disagreed. He turned away from the General and stuffed a full chicken into a stone furnace, his eyes and face hidden in the orange light.

The Shokan had heard all he needed and stood tall and proud for the Prince.

"We follow you into battle, Prince Goro."

It took a moment, a few breaths for Goro to turn and pull himself from a sturdy wooden bench to see the General off. The entire Shokan race hinged on those words. They would follow Goro to battle, no matter what choice he made, whether it was the same as Kitana's or not.

The door closed behind the General and Goro returned to the flame. He felt lost in the embers, and his soul shaken within the prison of his mind.

"Ko'atal and Quan Chi will breach the horizon at nightfall. Fujin has assured me that Bo' Rai Cho and Li Mei have chosen not to join the battle." Raiden informed Kitana as he, Liu Kang, Fujin stood around a wooden table with a scroll unfurled with the map of Outworld inked on it.

She took a stone etching of a ship and moved it closer to the shore near the palace.

"Where will they land?" She eyed Fujin for an answer.

"They will likely trike closer to the city," this caused her to move it south toward the streets than north by the palace and coliseum as he responded.

He pointed out the path the storms he had conjured to slow the ship, and the trajectory of the sails would take them.

"Quan Chi would want to cause chaos in the streets. This would likely lure Havok to join the battle as well." Liu Kang chimed in, arms folded, eyes narrowed at the map.

"Not if I contact the Order Realm and seek Hotaru's assistance." Kitana thought aloud.

"Hotaru will not assist us, as Outworld's fate does not phase him in the slightest." Raiden shot it down.

"Fujin, can you sink that ship?" She rephrased that, "would you?"

"I will not engage in combat, Kitana." He explained, "my position is to see a unified Outworld, no matter its leader."

"Why are you here then?" She prodded.

"It is also my position to protect the realms, and Quan Chi poses a greater threat than Kotal Kahn."

"Ko'atal!" She spat.

The tension was broken by Goro's entrance. He could see her distress and approached her quickly. At her side, he could see the position of the ship, the pawns on the board and the faces that laid out on the men around them.

"The Shokan and the Tarkatan will destroy them." He moved the Tarkatan army to the city, and the Shokan by the palace.

"No, Goro." She corrected him and moved them back where she preferred, the Shokan in the city and the Tarkatans by the palace. "The Tarkatan are many, yet the Shokan are stronger, if I had you in the city then it would be easier to blockade them."

Raiden added before Goro could finish his breath, "the Tarkatans would surround anyone that stepped foot in the courtyard, let alone the place walls. It would be too much, even for Ko'atal's Osh Tekk."

"You forget that he has some of Sheeva's forces with him." Goro glared down at the Kahn. "You would pit Shokan against Shokan?"

"Who better to ensure the traitors meet their punishment." Kitana looked up to see the anger within those eyes. She added, a hand on his lower right shoulder, "I trust you more than I did Baraka, which is why you will be in the palace with me."

This seemed to calm him, but she could feel the heat that coursed through his veins. She couldn't linger, war was upon them, and her next turn was toward Liu Kang.

"Will it drain you?"

"No."

She nodded, and a curious glance was shared between Goro and Raiden. Raiden could see answers behind the eyes of the Shokan, but Kitana and Liu refused to respond to him, "what is this?"

A moment of silence before she composed herself enough to turn back to the board.

"Fire." She spat quickly, like a fence to hide from Raiden's inquiry. "Liu Kang will summon fireballs from the sky to fall upon the ship and sea."

Raiden was not pleased with this answer and tightened his posture. He had trained Liu Kang better as a God, but Liu's eyes told a different story than the one Kitana began to explain.

Fujin leaned toward Raiden, and whispered, though he knew Liu Kang could hear, Kitana could not.

"Quan Chi is our only enemy here. You know this."

"Not the only one, but the only one that matters."

Kitana caught the exchange and beckoned their focus.

"We strike as soon as the ship is visible." She felt the intent behind that whisper even though she couldn't hear it. It felt like a spider crawled down her spine and told her she would soon be replaced. That frightened her, but worse, she wanted it.

She needed it.

Kitana felt more insecure about this battle than any before it. She held no resentment for Ko'atal, but she could not let Quan Chi control Outworld. Could she? A large hand gently warmed the soft curve of her left shoulder and she looked to see Goro's gaze back down at her.

He held tight, but gently to her and she knew what must be done in that moment, reflected in the pain of torment of his eyes.

Darkness enveloped her like a heavy shroud, or arms that held her down to the drunken wood of the ship. She couldn't scream, she couldn't move, any thing would tip off Quan Chi to her sins. Thoughts of light that peaked through the pores of her flesh. As the light shined in the darkness, the darkness could never understand it.

Skarlet was free to escape the cargo hold after Tanya had cleared the shadowy underbelly of the ship. There was so much that shrouded her mind with doubt and now the key to armageddon would be found within Kotal Kahn's army. The key to destroying all existence. The pressure was too much on her and the weight of her past did not help as her ribs felt crushed by each breath.

She needed to see Kotal Kahn.

At the surface of the ship, he was nowhere to be seen. Several centaurs and shokan stood in wait as they neared the horizon toward the palace. It was likely that Kotal Kahn was in his quarters, which as it were, was not the Captain's Quarters. That honor went to Quan Chi, per the sorcerer's demands.

Beneath the surface she would find those illustrious quarters and that of the assassins that joined the foul Nether Realm sorcerer, beneath this floor, Kotal Kahn should be found. Beneath that was the level for the crew, the fighters, and individuals like Syzoth and herself.

The long hall that stretched from nearly one end of the ship to the other was vacant and poorly lit. Near burnt-out torches rested in low cinders to guide her quietly down three doors to the left and right. Kotal Kahn would be the fourth on the right. Third biggest quarter on the ship, per Quan Chi's orders.

She stopped a moment as a knock and a clang clocked the wood of the ship like the sea had bashed a sword against it, but it was just the metal and heavy steps of Kotal Kahn in his room. It sounded to her as though he had begun preparation for the battle. She had lost track of time, but knew it would not come for at least another night.

Her fingers, bare of the black leather gloves that normally stretched up to her shoulders that would also dampen the noise of bone on wood, tapped gently against it. Kotal Kahn would hear it even underneath his armor that clicked and clacked as he moved.

The door opened and Skarlet peeled herself from the wall to pay deference and beg for a moment of his time, but instead Kia, the assassin beneath Quan Chi had greeted her.

"Explain yourself, girl." Kia was dressed in leather armor from a single pauldron carved with Quan Chi's symbol above one she could not recognize, down to brown carved bracers, grieves, and boots. She was prepared for war much as Kotal Kahn was inside. No one told her battle was imminent and to prepare immediately.

"She is second in command to my army, you would have respect for her." Kotal Kahn growled from inside the room Kia hid from the intruder.

Kia did not like that, her face scowled and wrinkled and her eyes narrowed to find Skarlet in the dim light.

"Quan Chi will not be pleased to know a low ranking officer has travelled above her station."

"He will not be pleased to find your body empty of it's life's blood." Skarlet returned. She tracked her right side from rib to rib to hip to a vial of blood she had kept just to beyond her dagger, a gift from one of the dead during the village raids.

She was adorned in near similar colors as Skarlet's armor, black and red, but the traces of brown masked her in these halls in the dim light. Kia's hair was as dark as night and black, dagger-like markings stretched up and down her face from jaw-line to cheek bones and forehead to the bridge of her nose. The outlines of her facial features, nose, mouth, eyes, all emphasized in the dim light like a her flesh had been sucked into a jagged void.

Her eyes narrowed tighter down at Skarlet and she bared unnaturally white teeth with small pointed ends like that of a beast. She took a step forward to abandon her post at the door and to show her size difference to Kotal Kahn's second in command. A foot of difference, but Skarlet paid it no mind, which only served to raise the ire of Kia.

"Do you know what it is like to be raised in hell itself, little girl?" She pondered, the answers never to be found in the skull of her enemy.

"No," Skarlet admitted, "but you'll find out what it's like to be tortured for eternity there when I send you back."

"Quan Chi will here of this." She used that as some threat, but Skarlet could not feel the edges of her fangs as they tried desperately to sink in.

"Enough. What business do you have Skarlet?" Kotal Kahn broke through between them and immediately the two took a step back.

Skarlet expelled the hot air within her and glared up at Kotal Kahn, "my business is with my Kahn, not a pale, pathetic sorcerer."

"Then enter, I will hear what you have to say." He seemed distant, peeled from the two as though he no longer cared if they struck one another. His back turned and his body cleared of them, Kia crunched her teeth into her lips and passed Skarlet with haste, no doubt, the blood mage thought, to inform Quan Chi.

Once alone, Skarlet entered and closed the door, and the gap between them.

"I have been made to feel like a fool, a peasant in this army I helped create."

"You are my second in command, Skarlet, and that will not change."

"Feels as though it has."

"Have you only come to complain?"

"No, Kotal Kahn, I want to understand Quan Chi's role in all of this. Why you pay a frail man deference."

"He is no fragile man."

"No," she spat, "he only controls the Kahn of Outworld."

Kotal Kahn could not respond to this. Though he stared through her to find some sense of higher ground above this statement, it was completely true. Instead he folded his arms and responded, "so you wish to leave my army?"

"No, Ko'atal," her voice almost as soft as Jades if not for her stone-like dialect, "I want to know that the Kahn I chose to follow, the Kahn I know who desires a One Outworld, is still that man."

This was a good question, and one he refused to answer. Though she did not pose it as one, the question played over in his mind from the moment he opened his eyes to the second they closed day in and day out. Somewhere buried within him was that man, but since the Spirit Walk he had been unable to let himself out.

In response, instead of the honesty she had hoped, he stood his ground, tightened his arms against his chest and let his stern features bore into her soul.

"I would follow that man to my death." She could see the prison gate he had put up, but not the answers that begged for release behind them.

"Get ready for battle, we strike now." The jagged spires of his teeth held the prison tight and only allowed stale air to reach her in the form of battle orders that sounded deep, but hollow of the Kahn she knew.

This caught her off guard. Though she had seen Quan Chi in his armor, Kotal Kahn now in his, and even Kia dressed, there was no one to tell her they had reached close enough to invade. One look out the small port window would tell her they hadn't for all she could see was bitter ocean.

The longer her eyes lingered on that port window, what she thought was just rain against the skin of the sea, was water being pulled from it.

She moved past Kotal Kahn to look outside and the sea began to swell like a cyst ready to burst with salt, foam, and thousands of pounds of pressure. It all carved across the surface of the ocean into a rogue tsunami. She rushed out of the quarter and pulled herself onto the deck. Behind her, nothing, ahead by the mast, Rain stood alongside Quan Chi and his two assassins.

The Edenian had reached into the depths of his being to pull forth the energy strong enough to carve out a wound so deep that the sea would lash out against anything in front of it. The tsunami would reach the city beyond the palace and drown all that dared to stay.

"It has begun!" Quan Chi bellowed with pride as the beast around them lunged forth toward the horizon.

Rain collapsed to his knees. The took each side of him as Quan Chi stepped forward to watch the mountain move across the sea. The sun itself hid from the raw power displayed by the Edenian, and the light hid from the darkness, damaged beyond repair.

Skarlet watched the horizon swell, and her heart pounded. For her, for the innocents on land, and all who watched Quan Chi drunk with the power of those leeched from, she realized in this fragile moment that there was no escape, and no going back.


	51. Fifty-One The Battle For Outworld Part 2

A cold stare up into the sky. The soothing water reached up to gently wipe the salt from sunken eyes. A silhouette passed over the harsh light of the sun, undetected by the sundown of a child's blank stare.

Above, the God of Wind cast down his gaze toward the speckled sea of bodies and the makings of civilization. With him, the burning sun, Liu Kang began their descent from the heavens into the ill washed swath of decayed humanity.

It was difficult to tell where the sea ended and the city began. They landed upon a sturdy roof among the high quarter, where the ground began to raise and the water had only gently slapped. Liu Kang scrutinized the horizon for a speck, a shadow beyond the specks and shadows that washed in and out from a seamless shore.

His heart began to sink with the city and his eyes strained to remain open, to focus on that dim, distant horizon. When a shadow reached up from the depths of the sea, he reached out for the God of Wind and pulled his focus forward to sea.

Liu Kang stepped forward, his heel lifted in inch, but Fujin held him in place.

"It is the work of Gods that left these prayers to sink beneath the ocean."

Liu Kang pulled away and rose from the rooftop.

"It is the work of Gods to leave no prayer unanswered."

Fujin watched him sweep through the wind, a smile almost cracked his aged lips, but he stood in wait for Liu Kang to burn like the sun toward the horizon.

As that speck of light shimmered like a dim candle toward the horizon further and further, the God of Wind finally picked up with the air that flowed from him and cleared the distance between the sea and his fellow deity.

—

The distance between city and ship was vast. No doubt it would have been a margin shorter had it not been for the exhausted work of Rain under the urgency of Quan Chi. He couldn't see the damage that had been done by the sorcerer's enhanced work of Rain's abilities, but he could feel the torture Kitana must have felt the moment she watched her city melt away with the sea. It was his city too. This was to be his Outworld, now he will inherit her disaster.

The bowsprit stabbed forward and his eyes tried to focus as two orbs of light, just specks off in the distance began to glow larger, as if they travelled closer, and closer, at godly speeds.

"Quan Chi, come look." He called out, and Quan Chi pulled himself from his assassins to observe.

"That is nothing we cannot handle."

"What is it?" Kotal Kahn narrowed his eyes, but the flashes of light grew only stronger and the outlines he searched for faded within its radiance.

"The rallying of dead gods."

Quan Chi motioned Kotal Kahn back. Once he could clear three steps forward into the nook that branched out into the bowsprit and began to collect his arms together and form a symbol as his body breathed in as deep as he could. The air around him grew stale, but also grew restless.

Kotal Kahn stepped back, the winds around them had begun to violently swirl and the sun grew brighter and hotter. It seemed impossible, but he felt as though the sun itself had reached down with a finger to swirl the very winds into a violent froth around the ship and just as he thought it, so did it happen. The fire spun, the wind howled, and Quan Chi's spell was ripped from his cracked lips down into the eye of the tornado.

The ship jerked back, the bowsprit now pierced through the heart of the storm and down from the eye, a pair of feet slid toward Quan Chi. Liu Kang lunged forth from the storm, his body engorged with the fire that encased the winds around them. From on high, Fujin dived down like a hawk toward its prey.

Quan Chi jumped back, enough to clear Liu Kang and put Kotal Kahn between them. Fujin tore through the fabric of the topsails and broke the masts as he landed at the farthest end of the ship from Kotal Kahn and Quan Chi. His closest enemies, Skarlet, Reptile, and Jataaka.

At the head, Liu Kang engaged Kotal Kahn. As Kotal Kahn fought the fire god hand to hand, Liu Kang dulled his flame as he thought to leave Ko'atal to Kitana, and kill Quan Chi instead.

Quan Chi could feel the loose tension between them and pushed Kotal Kahn aside. He would end this game, and he would not allow his plans to fall before the feet of a God.

"You cannot turn back time if I kill you, false god!" He threw his words into the wind and the flame, but Liu Kang could read them. It gave him pause, but he couldn't let Quan Chi strike him, not with words, nor with sorcery.

He returned with only silence and combat. Kotal Kahn watched as the two engaged one another with few chances to break, and fewer for him to intervene. If he wanted to.

He could feel the betrayal sink into him, but he knew Quan Chi was not ally. That was obvious, and he shook it off. There was a feeling of dread that did come over him, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what that feeling was. It sank into him like the fire, but colder than ice and sharper than the wind that slashes at his flesh. It grew louder and wilder the more Liu Kang advanced on Quan Chi.

It wasn't loyalty he sought from Quan Chi, it was solace.

Jade.

Liu Kang watched as a piece of the wood pillars above them cracked like thunder and collapsed toward them. He lunged for Kotal Kahn to save him, but Kotal pushed him back and into Quan Chi. The Sorcerer slammed into the wooden rail of the ship with Liu Kang. Uncertain of his intentions, Liu Kang watched as the ship began to crumble above them, flames tore through fabric and wood splintered around them. It would doom them all.

There was an odd, dull void in the eyes of Kotal Kahn as he looked across the flames between them. There was no time. He turned toward Quan Chi and raised the sorcerer over the sea.

Before the the pale, scrawny sorcerer could fall to the sea in a whirl of flame, Liu Kang found his back cracked inward from the pain of Kotal Kahn's massive sword. It did not pierce him, to flat along the edge to cut, but it crumpled him to the floor. Quan Chi landed over him and rolled off to a small clearing. Kotal Kahn raised his sword over Liu Kang, eyes lit with the burning of desire, the flames of intent, and the pain of his actions as if he could see the dim light of the God beneath him flicker out of existence.

"Do it!" Quan Chi gasped and heaved through the jagged rocks in his throat.

The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness would never understand it.

—

Untouched by the devastation, the palace stood tall over the drowned city. It's solid foundation, like feet, dry on the land and stood on the precipice of uncertainty. One by one, a green and black mist leaked from the cracks and crevices of the earth, the air, and the palace structure itself. Shokan, Centaur, and Osh Tekk alike were pulled violently from the mist until hundreds nearly surrounded the palace completely. A body peered down from the highest window to find the strongest spill of green energy greet her.

Ermac's dead green eyes gazed through Kitana and her commanders with little interest. The entity looked down with her at the army that penetrated the fortress. At the bottom, a black shadow formed into the assassins Jataaka and Kia. An ugly reminder to Kitana, as she stared back into those dead eyes of the spirit entity, that the distance between her and the ship over the horizon was nothing more than an illusion.

At ground level, Shokan threw wide the gates and let the flood in. Kia watched as Jataaka took to the head of the army and stormed the palace first, she would enter last, and deal with the stragglers. She despised going last, and was told by her partner that it was to ensure the gates were locked behind them so that the tarkatan and the shokan still under Kitana could not surround them.

The storm had claimed the Shokan, and the Tarkatan were easily bested ahead of her. One glance out to sea, toward the city that once was was enough for her to realize that this whole operation had been nothing more than a mission to pick off the stragglers.

Inside, the meeting hall was full of bodies, but few alive and fewer worth the fight. She would have to reach the top before Jataaka, and just in time for Quan Chi to find her the victor over the Goddess Kitana rather.

As the horde marched, the centaurs remained below and the shokan and men moved up, she crouched back into the shadows to ascend to the upper levels.

—

Kotal Kahn watched as the flames in the god's eyes flickered bright before the sword came down through Liu Kang's chest. The fire god's eyes widened and the light dimmed.

Kotal Kahn was struck by that flash of light in Liu's eyes. He watched the battle at the coliseum play over again and again, he heard Jade's final scream, and the commotion around him, even the sting of the sand as it scratched it flesh. He pulled back, his sword stuck in place and he covered his eyes from the light.

"Finish him!" Quan Chi hissed.

When Kotal Kahn opened his eyes, Liu Kang had pulled the massive sword from his chest and let it fall into the sea. He would heal, no doubt, being a God and with little threat to kill him, but Kotal Kahn knew that this injury would hinder him and his powers greatly. It would take more than a flesh wound to kill Liu Kang, and so the answer came from Quan Chi.

The sorcerer met him from the side, and Kotal Kahn pushed him away at first, a fleeted moment of reprieve for the fire god. The sorcerer's bore deep into Kotal's soul and pulled the hopes of Jade's resurrection with him to dangle over the Kahn's eyes. This is why Kotal Kahn had suffered Quan Chi's cruelty and demands. Only he could bring her back.

"Kill him you fool!" Quan Chi smacked Osh-Tekk hard across the cheek, though his frail form barely able to leave a mark.

With no weapon, Kotal Kahn approached Liu Kang and pulled him from the pool of blood beneath them. He raised Liu's chin to stare one last time into his eyes, as if to seek the answers, or a different way around this, another path toward his goal, but it wasn't there. The light shined in the darkness, but it showed him nothing, and he could understand why. How could a God not save her?

Liu Kang took in Kotal's scent, fear, control, desperation. Before a moment more, he let his body engulf in flames and forced himself back to trip over the rail. Kotal Kahn reached for him but the God had fallen too far and the sea reached out to meet him.

"You will bring her back, or I will throw you from this ship too!" His hands reached for the nearest object, Quan Chi, and in Liu Kang's place, he pulled the sorcerer forward and his eyes burned with rage.

"Only when you sit on her thrown." Quan Chi reminded him, but the force her felt rattled his fragile bones, and raked his body across the coals of the ship. Kotal Kahn could crush him with little effort. "I can save her from hell."

His voice was desperate, but another broke between them. A cry for Ko'atal. They turned to find Skarlet bloodied, bruised, and barely able to reach beyond the fallen shambles of the ship around them.

"Take me to Kitana." Kotal Kahn clenched Quan Chi tighter and his strength suffocated the sorcerer's will.

In a flash of energy, he could see the black orbs of Quan Chi's eyes wide with fear, and he could hear Skarlet's screams around them like the wind that howled against the ship. As the maw of Fujin's storm opened, ravenous to devour the ship, Skarlet reached for Kotal Kahn, and Quan Chi's energy consumed them.

—

Kitana the water rise above her feet. In the war room Goro and Raiden waited for her to return to the table, but her body pulled toward the windows to see the storm over the horizon and the city flooded beneath her feet. She could see the specks that washed out and reeled in her thoughts of children, babies, mothers, peasants, beggars, nobles, warriors, all pulled under the water equally. All of this because of her.

"By the Elders!" Goro caught her attention.

She turned to find Liu Kang slack against the edge of the table, Raiden rushed to his side with her. Neither could keep him up, and it took the strength of the Shokan to pull him onto the tapestry of outworld laid, now soaked in the blood of a God, across the table.

"How long, Raiden?" Liu Kang breathed.

"Too long." His voice was grim. "I had never suffered a wound like that."

"But it will heal?" Kitana pulled Raiden's eyes to her.

He nodded, but with the thunder of feet and the cries of war beneath them, he was not as certain as she demanded him to be.

"We must leave." Raiden urged, he grabbed Liu Kang as if he could teleport them, but his mortal eyes stared into the only person that could still do so.

"I will not abandon Outworld to Quan Chi." She mustered what she could, but then pulled from Raiden and back toward the window.

"We will die with honor then." Goro added.

The storm beneath them grew louder and the thunder of war banged on the walls in the floor just under their feet. Goro's words sank into her, as did Raiden's. If she were Kahn, she would have to make a decision.

She stood in the stale air, Liu Kang's labored breath beneath the storm, Raiden's insistence, and Goro's declarations against him.

"Fuck it!" She cried out, forced herself to cradle Liu Kang's head and as the storm reached their door, she whispered to him. "We will see each other again."

He nodded. Their fingers laced. His fire, her light burned outward with the veins of light that cackled and popped in the air around them.

—

The door burst open, Quan Chi first to enter. Immediately he was blinded by bright solar light that rivaled the sun. His arms covered his eyes and the door shielded those behind him. He could feel the sizzle of electricity in the air as it raised the thin hairs along his arms and burned the edges. The radiation singed into his flesh from head to toe and only when he felt it subside did he feel comfortable enough to lower his arms.

Kotal Kahn pushed through, but Quan Chi had barred with an arm. Kotal squeezed his lids tights, twisted his lips back and bared the heat, the light, and the energy that met empowered his flesh like the sun itself, but burned with the radiation of a thousand storms.

"What is this?" His words fell flat in the light.

Like a wet finger to the flame of a candle, the light burned out in the instance of a breath and Raiden stood between Kotal Kahn and Kitana, who was crouched over the edge of the table, Liu Kang in her arms.

Jataaka crept past Quan Chi and Scarlet back behind her, only able to see through the crack of the door with Kotal's body between her and Raiden. Quan Chi motioned forth, a green energy lifted from the cracks of the floor.

Like a dense fog, the mist lifted up between them and started to form a skeleton, bone by bone.

"Enough!" Raiden let the veins of heat burn from his finger tips out toward the sorcerer as the lightning singed the air around them and burned the mist around his feet. In his eyes, the cackle and sizzle of electricity swirled.

Kotal shaded his arms and protected Jataaka, but felt Quan Chi pull from him with the force that rivaled Fujin's winds. His body crashed into the stone wall and crumbled at Kotal Kahn's feet. As Jataaka motioned forward, Raiden's eyes burned a hole into her.

"Raiden!" Kitana called out amidst the mist of heat and lightning. "Return to Earth Realm."

"Come with me." His hand reached out to her from across the room. She need only reach back and he would take her to safety.

Her eyes wandered to Kotal Kahn, then to Goro, then the body that lay within her grasp and shook her head. This would be her last stand as Kahnum of Outworld. These moments would determine who she really was and she chose to see it through.

That old conical hat tipped down and the Thunder God burst into what seemed like a million little sparks of light and electricity and all there was left was Kitana and Goro to face the usurper.

"Bend the knee." Kotal Kahn urged. "Relinquish the throne peacefully, Kitana Kahn, and I will spare you."

These words struck Goro worse than Kitana. He lashed out in a burst of anger, his arms raised and mashed the chairs between him and Quan Chi. Before he could close the gap, that forgotten shadow had formed into Kia and she stood on the shoulders of the Shokan, a sword at his throat.

"Swear fealty to me, Shokan!" Kotal Kahn spat.

Goro tried to throw the woman off, but her shadow would cloud him and the blade always present somewhere on his flesh to cut, to pierce.

As he fought defeat, Kitana approached it. Kia's blade finally cut the Shokan's throat as Kitana knelt before the new Kahn. She listened as her last trusted ally choked on her betrayal and spilled the last blood of his race around her knees.

"I bend the knee to you, Kotal Kahn." She held back for a dim present. Her eyes never met his, but his hand took her shoulder.


	52. 52 Johnny Cage

**Hollywood California. October 21st, 1995**.

_I love this city_, he mused through deep black shades cast out toward the great sign that welcomed him back. He raced down 101 toward past Whitley Heights in to Hollywood California, eyes on the mirror back faced back at him, and not a care in the world as the wind, the palm trees, and the California sun welcomed him with open arms.

Past The Comedy Store and down toward the Sunset Strip, Johnny swerved left just as the light turned red down North Olive Drive. With only one car patient at the light, he didn't care about the rules, he had somewhere to be, and the luck of Hollywood was going to make it happen for him, laws be damned.

Once in the heart of Hollywood, he pulled into the parking lot of a three story studio office building, the windows as grey as metal, like a cage that kept the execs in. He thought it was like the battleground for lawyers, producers, studio big wigs to decide who got what, and what film would make it big. Today, they'd be fighting over him, and his film would be the next big thing to hit screens in the coming year.

It had to.

Outside the lot he wiped his furrowed brow of the sun that melted down his flesh and adjusted the dark shades that protected him from the harsh light of day. The building had an open lot, a few restaurants to each side and a mechanic shop across the street. Nondescript, perfect for an office space for the medium budget movie he was ready to get to.

The bus stop bench just by the entrance had a bald, frail man that looked to be in his forties, tanned by the sun, and old past his years, probably due to homelessness. Johnny almost hit him when he turned in to the lot, but the man paid I'm no mind, until the 95' Lexus SC parked and Johnny entered the hot reality of South Los Angeles.

"Hey, you almost his me, man." He accosted Johnny, but the words fell on deaf ears.

The star locked up the vehicle and started toward the building. The homeless man approached him, but Johnny had cleared him well before he could touch when the man reached out for him. When the man's hand touched the truck off is car instead, Johnny's shades locked on the man and he gestured for him to keep off.

"That vehicle is worth more than your whole family, have some respect." Johnny confronted and the man listened.

"Sorry, man, but you almost hit me, would have scraped your car too if you weren't more careful." Johnny had peeled into the lot, and the scrape from the edge of the bench would have done more damage to the vehicle, per Johnny, than the man's leg that stretched over it.

"Can you at least spare a five?"

"Excuse me?" Johnny's temper flared, his face red, his watch glared back at him as his appt. inside waited. "Do you know who I am? I'm Johnny Cage, and I didn't get rich by giving my money away to people like you. Go get a job."

"Who?"

The question didn't even register. Everyone had to have heard of him. He didn't have time for it though, no debates could be won against a stone wall.

Once his hand reached for the door, he looked back to check on the man. He was satisfied with the distance between the homeless and his vehicle and to his right, the bus was on its way to take that mess off the street for him.

Inside, Johnny was greeted by a long grey and white hallway that ended about three meters in with an oak desk and a beautiful blond in red. He tucked his silver suit and checked his feet for dirt before he leaned against the wood to greet her with a whitened smile.

"Miss me?" He flirted.

Through an awkward laugh she rushed some files away from view and cleared the space so her hands could fold in front of him. "You're late, actually. Must have been a long night with Harvey, was the party that good?"

He snickered and brushed the question off. His arms rested on the edge of the reception desk and he leaned in to take a good look at her configuration.

"You know, you should wear a silver dress, would look good next to me." He proceeded to tilt his shades down, his demeanor more serious, "if I had the time. What room's the meeting?"

"Three doors down, to your left."

"This is going to be a good one!"

"Good luck." She called out as the door shut, but he opened it just enough to reply with a smile.

"Hey, it's me!" He shrugged off the concern and reached his final destination. Now, success would be given to him on a golden platter once the next door opened.

Inside the room, Johnny was met with silence. The beige walls stared back at him, the windows in the room looked out over the parking lot, he could even see the old man still at that bus stop corner. The long oak table was empty, the chairs void of bodies, and inside was just him and one other person.

"You're late, John." A man, twenties, clean shaven and hair trimmed short, gathered his Starbucks mug and turned, surprised to see Cage. He looked busy, a suitcase in one hand and the mug in the other, he paused, unsure if he should motion for the exit that Johnny stood between.

"Where is everyone?" Cage hung at the door, hand on the edge, eyes scanned the empty room.

"Word came down, Weinstein wants Tom Cruise for the film."

"Rain man?" His shades came off, folded and tucked. The harsh light of day flooded into the room and he could only stare back at his agent.

"Top Gun, Risky Business, A Few Good Man, yeah Tom Cruise." He added, "turns out he was at a meet and greet recently, producers got to meet him, got to talking about rebooting Ninja Mime and everything went from there."

"What do you mean by that? I've played Ninja Mime for two films, there's no one else." Johnny let the man's words fall on his deaf ears. He needed a better explanation.

The man scratched his forehead with a free hand and began to tap his foot. Johnny's stare told him all he needed to know, but wasn't sure how to convey that in a way he could understand.

Johnny felt the urge to strike. With a quick jab he could take out his agent and no one would notice

"Don't look at me like that, John." He continued, "You got to every audition like you think you're the biggest star there. You think having this big persona is going to get you the big gig like it did with the first Ninja Mime, but John, no one gives a shit."

"I give a shit!" He snapped back.

"Well, it sure doesn't look like it to the people that write your checks."

Johnny glared, he couldn't speak. His rage pinched his veins and slapped his cheeks, and the impulse to itch was stronger and stronger. He was hurt, but beneath the boiling sea of red, it was merely the muted whimper of his heartbeat that held him back.

He was ready to sacrifice everything.

For nothing.

"John, as your agent, listen to me." He spoke and approached, hands out, palms faced toward his opponent, but he was met with hostility and stepped back. "I want you to go home, and wait for me to call you. Got that? For me to call you, John."

"Go fuck yourself." The last words spoken to his agent before the door slammed and the star was gone.

Outside the old bald man watched from the same bus stop bench as Johnny peeled out of the lot and past the red light that dared to stop him.

The old man grinned.

Far along the edges of the city, where the sign was just a black mold on the ridge of a vast and unseen hill, and the city itself was no more glamorous than the dim stars through the smog that threatened to press down from the heavens, Johnny found the the dark cogs of home.

A trailer in a park tucked away from the prying eyes of the city, was home to the broken star. His shades tossed in the car he'd already begun to think of what he'd make from selling it, he looked back, perhaps even more with shades included.

His small cobweb within the pit of Los Angeles was three trailers down and two across, on the left that is. There he could see the light of his neighbor, flickered and dim just as his when it still burned bright before it finally ceased three nights ago. He had meant to mention it to the landlord, but that would mean facing the man who sought rent ten days after it was due.

Inside, the shrine of Johnny Cage had caked with dust. The switch to his immediate right ignored his request for light so he banged on it, but no amount of abuse would brighten this night. The living room was small, about two couches sleeper couches wide, except he could only afford a chair and a tv. The skeletal remains of his desperate attempts to pay off the only thing in his life that maintained the image he desired. The hearse of a car that carried the corpse of a star around hollywood.

_That too will have to go_, the thought crept into his mind more often than he wanted.

The barren kitchen lead to the smallest room, the bathroom. A medicine cabinet over the sink, which leaned over the toilet that sat to the right of the bathtub.

There in the darkness he stared. No food could pass his mouth tonight, for the tightness in his chest and burn that flared across his flesh was far too great. His eyes, those dark beady voids stared into themselves until all that remained were his thoughts. The face he projected gone until the darkness began seep like gas out from those black circles of hatred and suffering.

Bang!

Bang!

"Where's my money, Johnny?" A voice followed the commotion. The property manager wrestled with the door and swung it wide open.

Johnny refused to break the glare in the mirror.

"This is the last time, pay the rent or–" his voice faded in the background.

He couldn't hear anything. The world seemed to burn away. The eyes turned to shadows that glared at nothing. No one looked back at him.

When the door slammed, his muscles reacted and smashed the mirror. Those pinched nerves and tense bone cracked taut flesh as glass shattered around him and his knuckles warmed to the idea of imminent destruction of the human being.

Years had passed since he had any kind of money and his name held any kind of weight.

_Who are you?_


	53. 53 Sonya Blade

Staten Island. November 17th, 1995.

"Lieutenant said you didn't ask for time off this Thanksgiving." Jax nudged by Sonya as they waited in the car outside a rotted, nearly crumbled brick complex on a broken street in Staten Island.

"We need to bring down the Black Dragon." Her eyes never strayed from the front door until three more police cars began appeared over the horizon of the grime of the street.

"You need to see your family too, or did you forget you had one?" He eyed her and stretched the coffee from its foam cell and then set it down with a hot breath. "Damn if we don't find anything here."

"He's here." She was certain, her voice concise.

"So all the informants tell us." He wasn't as certain as she, but as far as he knew, all the strings lead here.

Her two way radio hissed and coughed between the two and sputtered out the words that assured them it was time.

"We're behind you, Stryker." She nodded to Jax and together, exited the vehicle and filed behind a team of police ready for their most dangerous operation.

Three lines behind, they waited with Stryker, the tall blond cop as between the two with his radio in one hand to send information back to the lieutenant, and a gun in the other, ready to abandon communication as they entered the battlefield.

"We're in." He radioed in and dropped the walkie at his side.

Both hands on the gun, Sonya followed the line in, one by one through the shattered door that took little effort to cave in. The cave inside, however, seemed as broken as the damage they did to the door. Already a mess, the apartment complex was a stairwell that climbed up four stories above three first level rooms.

The first room was empty. No tenants, no sign of life. Sonya looked into the void of human life to find settled dust along the floor, the edges of the room. When she pulled away, the ram had already broken into the second door.

shrill cries was silenced under the wave of screams and lights from the police.

Guns clicked, feet stomped and voices raised. Sonya peered in to find a hispanic family on the floor between couch and television. A child with her parents.

"Take them in." Stryker ordered and the family was seized.

The third room as empty as the first, but this one had been lived in. Inside, a table in front of a couch with no television. The kitchen was dirty and dishes caked with old food. Brown boots sat at the entry way with an odor of the work day they had carried someone through.

It was apparent that someone lived alone in this unit. Someone possibly lonely. There were no photos on the wall, and no sense of decor. It was bland and grey, Sonya likened it almost to her own apartment in Manhattan.

Lonely.

"Move on upstairs." Jax chimed into the noise of feet and comrades in their search for evidence of the Black Dragon.

"Nothing inside?" She needed certainty.

"Nothing of use." He was concise and moved on.

She wasn't convinced and leaned in the doorway to take a quick look. There was a couch which looked more lived in than the entire building. One window at the far end with broken blinds were closed and a desk beneath them. There was a door to her right which seemed like a closet, and the left lead to the small, odorous kitchen.

"Sonya!" He called out to her from above the apartment she leaned inside of.

She shook it off and followed.

The staircase curved until a new floor awaited them. Another three apartment rooms on the opposite wall of the first floor. Once she stepped foot by the first door, the three of them were open and the police were ready to ascend. There was unease that started to lift with the dust in these rooms. Disappointment began to settle in the men and women that passed her, and she could see it in Jax's eyes.

Did the informant's lie to protect the Black Dragon?

Did the lie for a worse reason than that?

Have they even scratched the surface of this building's hidden secrets?

There was no reason to question the force that moved upward. She needed to see it for herself, though. She took a look into the first room, empty, the other just the same and the third looked lived in, but vacant. Inside that room was a strange sight for her. No doubt for the others, but with a lack of people to mow down, may not have immediately picked up.

It looked lived in.

Inside the bathroom was a VCR Tape.

Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'.

She noticed it had been moved, possibly thrown. It was in the bathtub, a white clawfoot tub that was dry and curtains torn from the pipes that wrapped around the ceiling above it.

She took the tape and looked for a television, but this unit had nothing. It looked lived in, but perhaps by an older person, with a radio, but no television. Seemed strange to her to find a tape here.

Despite the unnerved feeling that crawled up her shoulders, she moved on.

_Forget it_, she thought.

Her comrades waited for her upstairs, but only in spirit. They had picked clean the next level and had already made their way to the top.

"We got 'em!" She heard and rushed up the staircase.

The middle unit had been shattered into. On the floor a man with pale white skin and a grizzly bead laid faced down in his own blood. Jax grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him up for Sonya to see.

"That's not Kano." She felt immediate disappointment, in her team, in this mission, but yet still felt this strange trickle of unease down her spine. There was something here, but this guy wasn't it.

"He's a member of the Black Dragon. We'll make him talk." Stryker passed her by, certain in their catch.

"What are you thinking?" Jax approached, but she stared at the pool with his question unanswered.

"This isn't it."

He noticed the tape in her hand. Revealed the title and snickered.

"Nice family film. Let's get out of here." He passed her by and she had a moment, she could join him and the police force and take their small victory, or she could linger.

"Hold on." She pushed aside. At the very bottom of the building was a unit with a television. Here, she could put the tape in, to settle her nerves.

"We don't got time for this, Sonya. Captain says we're done here." Jax pulled her from the hallway with his voice, but she wouldn't budge. Not until the advertisements at the front of the tape ended and suddenly the first scene showed an empty apartment unit, much like these.

A man in white tank and dirty blue jeans stood with his back to the camera. It was increasingly apparent the man had his dick out, pissing on the floor. She looked at the floor beneath her, but it wasn't this room.

"Don't worry, baby, it's long dried once you get 'ere." A zip followed the deep island twang of the Australian that turned to face the camera.

Behind him, someone sat in a chair, the piss collected on their clothes and face, but who they were could not be seen.

Stryker and Jax joined her in the room. As Jax stared with her, Stryker began to check the room more carefully. This was the unit with the closet to the right. The door was open when they checked it and clothing, shelves, the usual was inside. He checked it again, and then looked back into the room.

"Which apartment is that?" He asked, but neither answered.

Kano snickered, he had a bowie knife at his side, sheathed, but he would run his fingers over it as though he needed to remind himself it was always there, always a part of him.

"You think I'd bothah' to lose the fight for New York in this place, mate?" He snickered and then moved out of the way.

Bang!

Bang!

Stryker struck the boards behind the shelves to find hollow space. Each room was constructed differently, how could they have missed the bedroom in this one? Perhaps it was a studio, but as the pieces fell into a room the size of the living space Sonya watched the tape in, he felt a pit hit his stomach.

Inside, he found men, recognized as being part of the lower rung of the Black Dragon syndicate, but they were all taped together and taped to them? Explosives.

Behind Kano was something that clutched Sonya's heart and dragged her closer to the screen. Her father.

He couldn't speak. Duct taped and hands tied together.

"Sonya, I'll admit, you got me cornered there, but I'm smartah' than you blues. I got true family, ready to die for me, for the Black Dragon. That care about something."

Stryker had called in the forces, and Jax had joined him. She was alone in front of the screen, but the noise pulled her away. To see her father's eyes on the screen, she couldn't choose which direction to go.

The knife left his side, and tucked neatly in his right hand, as thought it had lived there since childhood.

"So, baby, what do you really care about?"


	54. 54 Johnny Cage

They say home is where the heart is, but what if the feeling of that beating inside isn't your heart, but the world pounding away at you until all that is left is a hollow husk of what should have been a human being? Where is home then? Where the heart is? Where it was thrown by a world made of cold spit on a concrete curve?

His hand wrapped in cloth, his car battered in by a man now spread like batter across his trailer floor. Johnny stepped back until the slow pool of blood couldn't reach him, couldn't cake his white shoes. He used his wrapped hand to open the door and calmly, aimlessly wandered through the bitter streets of L.A., as far as those white shoes could take him.

The ghost lights that gazed down at him blinked at the black sheep, strayed from the wayward flock. They whispered to him and pierced his eyes from time to time, but never dared reach out to him. Even they shunned the darkness so far beneath them.

Somewhere beneath the glamour of Hollywood and the glitter of the name 'Los Angeles' is the marred flesh of a city for far in the depths of the hell a gasp for air is a death sentence ten thousand leagues beneath the bodies of a rotted society. So many people suffer so that so few can walk on their names on poorly maintained sidewalks. Thousands of humans decayed across the curbs of L.A. so the few can smile under faded lights poorly processed and shipped like dolls to the rest of the world in neatly packaged screens.

Johnny was one of them.

Now he is the many who suffer for the one.

As the light shined in the darkness and the harsh light of day scraped its claws across the land, Johnny awoke to the smell of shit and rot. Down the street, his people awaited him. The homeless, the forgotten, the spat on and the dead. Behind him, the streets you see on T.V. that pretended to be clean.

Amongst the nothing, he spotted a bald head, badly damaged by the raking of the sun across its flesh. It was the man that had watched the beginning of the end of Johnny Cage's career. The man he had almost run over because he too refused to see the soul for the curb.

The man looked worn out, as life had not worn him well over its shoulders. He was shirtless, his pants looked as though it had been dragged through the mud, the concrete, the dirt, and the spit of the world, but it still fit him. Johnny could see these men and women and how they may have come to this point in life, in tents and paper on the side of streets people dared not drive down.

Was he a child in L.A.? Was he a little boy passed around by Studio execs until every hollow cavern in his soul was filled with the filth of humanity? Was he a husband tossed aside by a wife that found better? Was he a D-Class actor who couldn't get a job to save his life because of an ego so big it refused to let him step down to reality?

"You made it." He greeted the man.

One glance and the others scattered. Johnny was new poor. New filth. He didn't know what it was like to be this way for eternity. This little flower had only just wilted, but he would learn to become a scar in the ground, just like them.

"The bus." He added, the man had ignored him at first, for a thousand yards ahead seemed like a more interesting sight to stare at.

The man never turned. Never acknowledged him. They were all just flesh posts stuck out of the ground that slowly rotted away as time went by. He could see the only home they had every reflected in their eyes was the hotel of death. He couldn't see himself reflected in those eyes. He couldn't see himself with those eyes. Johnny Cage, rot like driftwood in the flesh wound of L.A.?

He thought they too must have had the desire to fight. Who made it out? What told these men and women otherwise? Was the change not worth the struggle to fight?

He needed to fight.

Fighting is what Johnny Cage was known for.

Right?

A sound kicked up the dust on the shoulders of the living dead. They began to scatter, those that could still tear their limbs from the muck of the Earth. Others, too gone to understand, or too ignorant to flee stood and stared as a black limousine slowly cradled the sidewalk until it came to a dead stop. Johnny stared back at the black passenger window, his pale reflection as if he was inside that vehicle not long ago glared back at him.

Slowly the window began to roll down as he pulled the shades away from his own eyes to stare into those of the passenger. Who would bother to come down these broken streets so deep in the scarred heart of L.A.?

"Johnny Cage? Bloody hell." A deeply familiar voice reached out to him to check for a pulse through Johnny's ears.

He leaned down to check to find a star greater than the sun stare back at him.

"David Bowie?" Johnny tried to imagine the screen and what it would look like in the flesh. The man looked so human he couldn't understand it.

"I loved Ninja Mime." Bowie smiled and spoke in that deep cello voice with a soft chuckle after through those tight London lips. "You know, I started my career out as a mime?"

"No." Johnny stared. It sounded human, but it looked like David Bowie. He was struck.

"Get in." The door opened and a flicker of opportunity reached out to grab him.

He looked back. The cold real world stared blankly at him, but he knew what it was and knew where he stood. The nothing that lay ahead for him with open, broken arms would grant him comfort in the nothing he'd become, but that flicker of hope inside him couldn't let himself become a blooded root in the ground of dissonance. He took one foot from the puddle and into the limousine, then the other, and then the door shut on him.

"Where to?" Johnny slipped the shades back on, but Bowie snickered at this and took them off.

"I'm going to show you what you're really worth." Bowie smiled, eyes pierced through Johnny's shades.

The old man stared as the limousine peeled away. That thousand mile stare now adrift toward the back of the vehicle as it retreated from the muck.


	55. 55 Sonya Blade

Beep. Hiss.

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Hiss.

Her eyes opened to the human of the fan above, to the world of pastel walls. At her feet, Stryker stood, bandaged, but uniformed. Bruised, but at the ready to greet her. There was a sense of grayness about two of them, like the room just didn't fit their thoughts.

The only thing on her mind was Kano.

When she woke up, she was almost upset. A million years she spent with millions of ways to kill him.

The building collapsed around them that day, several offices, Stryker explained, had lost their lives, and few would still see time in the hospital before they'd make it back out into the real world. Stryker was out, she could plainly see, but she thought about Jax. He had not said a word about him.

"Sonya?" A frail voice weeped at the door.

Her mother came in to take her hands, and Sonya focused on the spots and lines that darted those familiar, but old ands. She took hers from her mother. Suddenly two worlds began to collide.

"You're father hasn't returned." She kept her hands at the bed, for Sonya if needed.

A glance between Stryker and Sonya sealed a pact that no word would be spoken of this. His fate wasn't known, his location, in fact, Sonya wasn't sure how to think about it still.

"The police force will find him." She assured her mother, but the cold tone of the officer cracked when her mother's hand touched hers again.

"You'll bring him back. You'll find your father, Sonya." She was so certain.

Sonya could see the beads form at the corner of the old eyes and began to trace the weathered curves of flesh, but she couldn't feel it. She had buried this so deep inside, she had begun to wonder why Kano had kidnapped her father at all.

He didn't love her after all, right?

"We'll find him, Mrs. Blade." Stryker intruded.

For too long she waited. She loved her mother, but Sonya's heart had been singed by the flames of war. Still, the cracks bleed. She hugged her mother as the hospital gave her freedom to leave, but she would not.

"Where is he?" She turned to Stryker, who dared not speak about it until this point.

He nodded down the hallway.

They moved. Slow, but careful. She was vigilante. Each room had some form of tragedy or new beginning for the broken. Three doors down she found Jax. Still unconscious, still hooked up to machines. She wanted to enter the room, but her hand wouldn't turn the nob. That coldness seized her breath and pushed her back a step. The fire now burned a ring within her eyes as they met Stryker's.

"We need to find Kano and end this."

"Come hell or high water."

At the station she was welcomed back like a hero, but tragedy had still struck. Welcome back, Sonya, other cops are still dead. In the break room she waited for the coffee to drip, for the life of the machine to die so that her heart may race again for the hunt of the Black Dragon's leader. Two detectives entered, waited, talked amongst themselves, and then turned to Sonya.

"Our lives are in your hands and you're waiting for coffee?" One spoke, blunt, and stared into her like she were merely an insult to the force, like pig, or racist.

The other spoke, "looking for the Black Dragon is a wild goose chase Sonya. He's just making us fall into every trap, whittling us down one by one, and you keep stepping into it." He added, "starting to think you're one of them."

This one caught her off guard a moment, but she stared blankly at the man. Portly, black hair, may as well be a pig. He certainly was racist.

"Next time I'll bring your team with me, I'm sure the black kids in the neighborhood will be happy to know you're off the streets."

"You fu-"

"Is there a problem here?" Entered the captain. His presence silenced all three of them and the air behind him carried the weight of his words like lead anvils on all of their shoulders.

"Sonya, Lieutenant Stryker wants to speak with you." He took her shoulder, "hold cell on the right when you enter."

The blood guy, ruffled hair, chiseled brows with that serial killer stare, solid tone button downs and always with the donuts, passed Sonya with the box, but she moved right passed him. She didn't have time. He waved her off and sat in the corner with the lead forensics analyst as the others exited the break room.

In the room, Styker stood at the table, leaned against it with his arms folded and a remote control in hand.

"Another tape came in." He welcomed her in, but his voice was low, his words short.

"From Kano? Which one is it this time?"

"The House That Dripped Blood." Sonya then cut him off to finish the rest.

"Nineteen Seventy-One, Horror featuring John Bryans."

"Yeah." He then reached out with the remote to turn it on.

With a flicker and a flick the screen showed Kano behind her father. He was alive, duct taped to the seat and Kano still with the dagger, but not a drop of blood on it.

"You know, baby, ever since you killed half of my men and I nearly escaped our little informant operation in Manhattan, I've spent every single day and every single night thinking about you." He toyed with his words, almost sing-song, like the dagger that traced his fingers.

"Feelings mutual." She returned, though the recording could not hear.

"I lost good men, loyal men. Men that were better and stronger than anyone on your police force." He added, "which, by the way, I heard you lost about as many men and women as I have now. You'd think that would make us even, right, babe?" He shook his head. "No."

Stryker paused the recording.

"What his end game?"

She stared into the frozen eyes of her perfect opposite. She may not have realized it, but she was much a cold blooded killer as Kano. She could feel the desire to strangle him and anyone that got in their way. Right now, the only one between them was her father.

He stared back at Sonya, eyes wide, helpless, but in those eyes somewhere behind the grain of film was a cry for his daughter, not the police. She could hear it. She could feel it. Her heart began to race, those burning cracks began to mend and the pain suffocated her chest.

She needed to get him back, but she would die just to kill Kano herself.

"To get back at me," she turned to him after a long pause. "I lead the operation that gutted the Black Dragon. He didn't realize that he had spilled more information as our informant than he intended."

"Thought he could play the game." Stryker looked back at the screen.

"He got played."

"Now we are." He added.

"I am." She tightened her arms as they folded around her chest and watched.

"The Black Dragon is more than a crime syndicate, Sonya. We're not the police. We're family, and you fucked with my family. Now I'm going to fuck with yours."

He tossed the blade aside and came closer up against her father. His arms around the man's shoulders and his head on his left side, one good eye toward the camera.

"Do you miss him, baby? Miss your daddy?"

Sonya couldn't answer this, and even if she could, she wasn't sure how. Those eyes, though familiar, also seemed estranged. It had been many years under his roof without ever hearing him tell her he loved her. She became a cop for him. She became everything he wanted out of her, but not once did he tell her what she wanted out of him.

Stryker turned from the screen and watched her.

Her eyes tight, arms tighter, and though she stood as a statue might, he could see the cracks in the marble form.

"Well, I'm about to fuck you right in the cunny. Right where it hurts, baby." One armed moved behind the chair. He wrestled with himself for a moment to produce some grunts out of her father that were muffled by the duct tape.

His face began to redden, and his temper flared. The optic piece in his left eye brightened as his blood temperature raised. She could visibly see him psych himself up.

"You bitch!" He spat. "You fuck with me, you're going to get fucked!"

"You said that already." She spoke to the screen.

She watched him strangle her father with that arm around his neck. He growled and groaned like an animal and cursed at the camera.

"You're gonna' get what you fucking deserve, you cu—"

BANG!

Stryker stopped the tape.

Sonya stood for a moment in silence. Eyes on the screen as the red hue that faded with the recording to pitch black hit her. Did he love her? He'll never get to tell her now.

The cracks in the marble produced tears that fell silently down the statue of a broken human that desperately tried to hold them back. If she could stop her heart, this would be the moment.

"Sonya?" His voice felt like it had been filtered through a long tunnel to her.

All she could hear was Kano's screaming. Her father uttering the words he had never told her in life, and the sound of the gun that shattered her glass facade.


	56. 56 Johnny Cage

_Show them who you are. What you're worth!_

Bat!

Beat! Beat!

In sync with the music that flowed in his ears and the pulse of heat through his veins, Johnny Cage struck the punch bag. Young, illustrious in the head and ready to step into the light. He batted at it, his eyes so focused as though the bag itself were human. He saw the shoulders, the stomach, chest, head, all of it a target for him, but not just that, the target beyond that.

Johnny wanted to be a star. He wanted fame and fortune, women and a name that meant something.

"Johnny's in America," Bowie sang under his breath and pulled Cage from his thoughts.

The world passed them by in shades of black. Johnny watched Bowie's eyes on him. The star, the man that became a legend right before him in the next seat. Then the reality of his situation struck. Bowie had let him in under the false pretense that Johnny was a star too. Was he? Not anymore according to Hollywood.

That moment of worry reflected in Bowie's words.

"Chill out a moment. We'll be there soon."

He let that deep, calm voice wash over him. He was in a limousine with David Bowie. The star of stars.

Who was he question that?

The vehicle came to a stop in a brighter side of Los Angeles. Building lined across the streets with the bustle of life beneath them. Johnny stepped out to an immediate response, but it was to the sight of Bowie. The legend grimaced quietly to himself and raised a hand with a forced smile as the driver quickly whisked them into a brick building stuck between two fashion stores.

Johnny took a quick look before the world faded around them. A metal door, unmarked building, no windows. If you were famous and needed to hide, this certainly would be where he'd go. Once inside, there was a flicker of light and a staircase that lead down. Metal steps and rails guided them both down until a dull roar met his feet and coursed its way up to his ears.

"You playing here?" He turned his head to he star, who moved past him toward a door on the right of them.

"Only the games."

Bowie was quiet since. They were both ushered down a long, bright hall way after the door behind them was locked by a staff member. White tee, all very professional, Johnny thought. He didn't know where they were, but figured it had to be a hidden stadium in the city.

"Good to see you again, Mr. Jones." The next staffer greeted David first.

"Tell Reznor I'll see him tonight. I've got something important to do first."

The man only nodded and opened the door to let them into this new world.

Inside was a crowd of people beneath them. They walked the length of a loft walk way and were quickly ushered into club seats that overlooked a circle of people. Metal barricades encased two bare chested men as they fought for the crowd that screamed around them. Just as Bowie sat in a long, black leather sectional, two woman, nude, of African descent approached, but he waived them off. His ring finger deterred them.

"Wouldn't want to upset the misses." He said in earnest, then parted is knees, relaxed against the couch and watched.

All of this surprised Johnny. An underground fighting ring?

"You really into this?" He had to ask. He couldn't figure Bowie the kind of person that would want to watch men and women bloody themselves for human entertainment.

"Love it!" Bowie clapped as the man in blue dropped from a hard haymaker. "Not what you think though."

"What you mean?"

"This isn't fight club, Johnny. It's the black market."

He watched again as the man in blue was collected by men in white shirts, bouncers it looked like. They wore all black, save for a dragon design on the back of their clothes. He then spotted the money collectors in the crowd, but it wasn't the loser that got collected for it, the winner was quickly seized by the guards. Tased and held down.

He looked back at Bowie's eyes, the man was simply amazed.

The winner, a muscular blonde almost like Johnny in red shorts, was dragged to the barricade to be inspected by a man brought to the forefront of the action.

"That's his owner now." Bowie noted. "He's got five already, rich bastard."

"Who is that?" Johnny couldn't recognize the man, but he could only see the back of his head in the crowd.

"Doesn't matter, really. Who is anyone?" Bowie brushed it off and sat back to examine Johnny. "You think you could win those fights?"

He didn't understand what the man was really asking, only gave him a rushed, "I can beat anyone."

"Rash, confident, but who are you? You're a nobody, Johnny."

Speechless. His temper began to flare, but he wouldn't dare touch the greatest star in the world. Not here, not anywhere. So, who was he indeed so proud he couldn't defend himself against even the elite?

"You got fired from your motion picture because no one likes you. No one even believes you're talented enough to deal with your ego just for one movie."

"Who do you think you are?" Johnny bit back.

"I'm your master now." Bowie grinned, that famous smile and then turned toward the guards at each side of their booth. "You were so desperate to stay relevant that you got in the car with a stranger just because I'm famous."

"You don't know the first thing about me!" He raised from the seat as the guards turned into the booth.

"I know at least one thing about you, Mr. Cage. You can beat those men down there." He pointed and Johnny followed, "but can you beat the man inside here?" Bowie pulled up and pressed a finger tight against Johnny's forehead until the fallen star pushed him back.

The guards rushed him, both held Johnny down with his knees against the metal seating, his head pressed into the leather cushioning and his eyes focused on Bowie, laughing.

"You know," he trailed off, his body comfortable and casual on the couch, "Ziggy Stardust didn't even take a full two of my life, and yet it's all people think of me, assuming they know me for my music." He then grabbed a glass tumblr that had waited for him to the far left. Empty, ready for whatever he desired, he toyed with it like it were a crystal ball and his eyes settled into the emptiness of it as Johnny's world fell down. "Everyone else just thinks of me as Jareth, the Goblin King in that one movie."

Johnny struggled, but there was no release here.

"I made a name for myself in other ways, and not just more movies and more music, but the impact I had on the world." He added, his eyes dark and pulled Johnny's stare into the depths of his, "fame is fleeting, Cage, even for the famous. Everyone knows me, but I'd rather be home with my wife than on tour. I found something better, and I found another way to be. I don't need fame, singles and mainstream success. I'm David Bowie."

"The fuck you want with me then?" He spat as a large hand crushed his skull against the leather seat.

"I want to know who you really are, Johnny Cage." He tossed the tumbler and knelt before his captive. "I want to see you rise or fall like Ziggy Stardust. Want to see what really motivates you. I could on, really, I'm fascinated with people, but I ultimately, I'm giving you ask yourself the same thing."

Johnny couldn't speak, his lips pressed, eyes red and face white as the strength of the guards held still his resistance.

"A lot of men and women have come through this trafficking ring and been sold off or killed, and few able to free themselves. You could do that, I know it. I've seen you fight and I know your resolve is there, but a place like this is not worth your talent." He waved off the guards and watched as Johnny resisted the initial fall and pulled himself together onto the sectional and adjusted to the pain.

"What are you asking?"

"There's a boat in Hong Kong that comes only once every few generations. You're going to be on that boat."

"Hong Kong?"

"Only for a few days. There's a tournament, Johnny, that I think you could win. I want you fighting for me, for yourself at this tournament."

Johnny touched around for blood, for injury and was relieved to feel nothing but pissed. His eyes bore holes into Bowie's.

"Win some fucking tournament for you?"

"You'll get money, fame, whatever you want, really. I just want you to fight."

He watched the thought process in Cage's eyes. He could feel the turmoil in him. He knew what Johnny had gone through and what brought him here beyond getting in that limousine. He knew he couldn't say no.

"Fine, I'll fucking fight."

"Good. You leave tonight. My friends here with the Black Dragon will make sure you reach the boat." A quick nod and the men descended upon him again.

Bowie leaned back, his eyes now on the next fight, two children. His hands met above his knee and pillowed his chin.

"So it begins." His voice deepened as he watched on in fascination.


	57. 57 Sonya Blade

_You're mother always said you looked prettier when you smiled. I always tell her you're always pretty, aren't you, firecracker?_

The thought plagued her mind in her father's voice as Jax entered the the apartment. Everyone around her cheered and clapped. He was hugged one by one. He had finally come home. She put on a smile and clapped when they did, then approached when it was her turn and hugged him tighter than anyone. This was her partner, her brother in the force.

"I'm sorry, Sonya." He whispered in her ear beneath the party around them.

"Welcome home, Jax." Her smile was a chainlink fence she had put up.

"It's good to be home again. It'll be good to be on the hunt again too." He could sense the unrest within her. He felt it too.

"Come on, let's get a drink!" Stryker intervened.

The three parted through the party the kitchen where alone they could pour a fine wine Stryker had brought for the occasion. As the cork shot into the ceiling, Sonya smiled and laughed, Jax liked that, and gave her the first glass.

"So, Lieutenant, when's the next raid party?" Jax joked, but he was serious, and Stryker could see it in his eyes.

"Jesus, Jax. Relax." He poured for himself, back turned from the two to rest the bottle on the counter. "Both of you."

"Every moment we hesitate, the Black Dragon are ten steps ahead of us." She added.

"That's why we have helicopters." Stryker joked.

"You know," Jax swirled the wine and savored the sight and smell, and soon the inebriation it would give him. "maybe I could use a weekend off."

"That's the spirit. Rest up, seriously, that's an order."

"Yes, Lieutenant." Sonya reluctantly nodded and took a sip.

"A big storm's coming in." Jax added, he elected himself to change the conversation, "most lightning I've ever seen."

"Strange thing is, they say the storm is traveling against the wind." Stryker continued.

She slammed the glass on the table and rushed for the door. Jax met her and held her shoulders, and her fiery gaze.

"Kano is out there and people are dying."

"You're obsessed, Sonya." Jax tried to find his partner in those eyes. The fire held her deep within and he reached out with his voice, with reason to pull her from the flames, but he was not so sure if she could be rescued. "You just lost your father and you want to get out there and get yourself killed?"

"Not if I kill him first." The wall of flames burned bright in her eyes and recoiled for a moment.

"Sonya." Stryker pulled their attention back to him. "I get it. You're not the only person on this fucking team that's lost a loved one or a friend to this job."

She could see his wife on the pavement where they found her. How could she forget the one thing he couldn't.

"You're not the only who's looking for this mother fucker." Jax added.

"I have to be the one who finds him, Jax. I have to be the one to kill him."

"Geez, Sonya, you're starting to sound like him." Jax pulled her closer and whispered to the soul hidden behind those eyes. "You're not a killer. You're not like him."

"I'm not crazy, Jax." She assured and pushed away.

"Now you sound like the crazy guy in the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute." Stryker snickered, it was awkward and he looked as though he had spilled himself unintentionally. When caught off guard, he brushed it off, "oh, sorry. Some guy in the clinic's been claiming he knows where Kano is."

"Some guy in a mental hospital knows where Kano is?" Sonya prodded in disbelief.

He let the 'N' linger before he allowed himself to continue, "not just that."

"How long as he been locked up for?" She prodded again.

"Ten years." Stryker snickered, as though he couldn't even belief himself. "You know that case with Chicky and the three girls he murdered?"

"Yeah, the cokehead murders in Manhattan. I thought he died in a stand off." Jax recalled as if he were in front of Chicky just as he was that day. "I shot him."

"Yeah, well, we found him because of his accomplice, Jordan. Claimed insanity, seemed believable enough at the time."

"And now?" She was not amused with this digression, and glared with tired eyes.

"Funny thing, I've been hearing a lot of what he has to say lately. Now, I don't know if insane is the right word." Stryker seemed strange to them. A stranger if even.

As Lieutenant he would very well have information they might not as detectives, but to hold it from them in such a hot case as this even if it were from a psychopath locked away in a hospital. The thinnest string could still lead to the greatest ball of yarn they've searched for. She wasn't so sure, though, as he uncomfortably laughed it off.

"Don't worry, I've already looked into it. The guy's nuts."

"Then why mention it?" She was ready to deck him.

"Just, I looked into it cause they kept saying he was asking for you. Every day, every night. Sonya. Sonya! Where's Sonya? Claiming to know where Kano was, but would only tell you. Seemed nuts to me."

"Sounds like you're both crazy." Jax jested.

"Manhattan Psychiatric Institute?" She wasn't laughing.

"Don't go, I've already spoke to the guy, he's nothing." This didn't stop her. Sonya was gone before Jax could finish his next drink. He'd follow her to hell, but he had just climbed out and stared at the face of it. Should he again?

The door closed behind her.

Th first floor of the facility was for staff only. She revealed her badge to the receptionist who seemed to know of her. The story about the building raid and collapse was on the news paper she had folded to the side of her coffee.

She locked eyes on a older man in a white coat that seemed surprised to see her. He spoke her name like it were a question, but when as she repeated her name and rank, and request to speak with the man, he only returned that they had received a call about her headed their way. Stryker was already ahead of her.

"Visiting hours are closed, and we don't normally allow these kind of patients guests." He guided her down the white, clean halls of the asylum.

"This is an official investigation. I need to see him, if only to rule it out." The doctor seemed more assured by this, but he still seemed uncomfortable with the sudden occasion.

"Ten window, to the left. Here we are," he peered in, "Jordan Stevens, criminally insane, murderer, schizophrenic, should I go on?"

"I know the list." She waited for him to open.

The door opened and a clean white room greeted her. To the right was a door that hung against the wall with a thin mattress with even thinner comfort. The room looked almost plastic to her, save for the brittle human form clumped on the bed.

"Jordan?" The doctor greeted, prodded, and bid the animal his welcome to their guest. "It's Officer Sonya Blade."

White, eyes glazed like the fluorescent light above them, and brown hair that tangled unkempt across his head. Jordan tugged on the white shirt and reached for the edge of the bed to sit up. When his eyes finally met hers, he looked cold and blank at her.

For a moment there was silence.

She imagined he'd say something to her that maybe she'd recognize. Something about Kano, or the Black Dragon. Something about her.

Anything!

He stared blankly, as though this was the first time he had ever seen her, or heard of that name.

"Th'fuck are you?"

She felt stupid.

Sonya turned and stared a dagger into the soul of the doctor before she started down the hall.

Another waste of time.

As she neared the exit into the next set of halls, a low voice echoed, almost older, but not the doctor's.

"Bang bang, she shot me down. Bang bang, that awful sound. Bang, bang…" She could almost hear her father sing down the hall as he had when she was a child.

His voice invaded her skull. It called to her and pulled at her.

"My firecracker shot me down…" just as her father would.

For a moment she hung in silence.

That awful sound.

A moment later, the door shut behind her.


	58. 58 Sonya Blade

Sonya stared across the room into the eyes of a mad man. The light shined the darkness and reflected back a twisted version of herself. Warped by the curves of madness and obsession. They watched one another in a moment of silence, neither truly wanted to speak first, but the eerie quiet needed to be broken, lest the guard take her away.

"Why have you come here?" He stared, fingers patted his lips as though he had a cigarette, but there was nothing to suck but the stale air around them.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" The vitriol bubbled in her speech and spilled onto the desk for him to drown in.

"I'm that guy that helped get those little girls killed." He repeated, "pleaded insanity. Got it, but the police have sought after a death sentence since."

"Rightfully so."

His eyes reached forward for hers and pinched her tighter into an uncomfortable squint. The upper ridge of his teeth began to scrape his bottom lip along a line he was most familiar walking back and forth along.

"You sang for me." She recalled the eerie moment the night before, the song her father would sing, the way he sang it. Everything was exactly as he had done, right down to the tone of his voice.

"I don't know you." He maintained this, what she believed to be a facade.

She stared. No response.

The whites of her eyes scraped across his mind like a concrete canvas he could cut his hands on and bit his lip with discomfort before his own needed to cast down at the table.

"We're not the only ones here, you know." He spoke low, as though he didn't want someone to hear but them. Their little secret.

"The guard and Dr. Newman are outside the door." She answered, but he shook his head.

"A spirit." He added, "see, sometimes I get these moments of dissociation. I can see the past, the present, and speak to the dead, and those from beyond this realm."

"That's bullshit."

"I don't remember much from it, but lately, since word came out that I'm scheduled to sit down on that cold chair and be electrocuted, the spirit's been taking over more frequently. I've been letting him."

"This is a fucking waste of my time." She pulled up from her seat, but in a moment of shock at her anger, he recoiled into the seat and she watched as Jordan pulled at his hair, slow, methodical until it extended down to his eyes and he focused his gaze at her, deep into her eyes, right through her soul.

His lips pinched tight into a smug grin, into a cruel curve that spoke to her in a low tone, "my beautiful Sonya. I have been waiting to meet you."

She watched, unable to move. The room's temperature dropped and trickled down her back and shoulders like icy spiders. All she could do is watch.

"I have heard so much about you."

She refused to respond, so he sat up, confident, and grinned.

"Where are my manners, I am Shang Tsung, sorcerer of Outworld."

"Bullshit." He next step brought her right to the door and her hand turned curled to knock on the heavy barrier between her and the real world, but as she reared her knuckles to strike, she heard her father's voice.

"Firecracker." He spoke to her, reached out with her voice to turn her by the shoulder.

She dared not.

"Look at me, Sonya." His voice was stern, and commanding, just as the captain he was and so she peeked back. Jordan's demeanor in the chair had changed. Straight, curt, and eyes like fire that could turn her into a child with the kind of glare only a father could give.

"No!" The sorcerer wailed in anger and the man's face reddened, his hands clutched like claws that scrapped the edge of the desk. Jordan then leaned back, nails dug into his cheeks and scraped downward to mar the others as he hissed through gritted teeth, "no one gets to speak to her, until I get a deal!"

His eyes were red, blood shot and bitter. There was fear in those eyes. A deep dark fear that only death could bring.

"Don't estimate my fear of that chair!" He growled. "Tell the captain that my insanity plea was true. Keep me in here, and I'll let you speak to them!"

"Consider it done."

"No! I want you to do it now!"

The next moment, her cellphone, large and clunky was in her hand and her Lieutenant on the line. His voice crisp like the radio for Jordan to hear.

"Lieutenant Stryker?"

"What is it, Sonya?"

"I'm with that guy, the crazy one."

Jordan bit his lip and crunched his eyes, a twitch in the right, a scrape of his nails on the veins of his hand as she spoke. He listened intently.

"What about him? Guy's fucking nuts."

"You're right. I need you to send a message to the captain."

He listened intently. Curled up on the chair like a bitter teen that's desperate for what he desired, he toyed and bruised his body as she spoke to this lieutenant. When the phone was at her side again, she stared back so he would reposition himself.

"Bullshit." He imitated her.

"I don't deal in bullshit."

"Then why are you here?"

"To prove you are insane."

There was a pause, a long, ugly pause between them. Jordan let his heart rest, his breathing settle, and his face drain of the blood that fueled his rage.

"You don't get to speak to your father, until I know for a fact that I don't go to that vile, cold chair."

"You have my word."

He changed position in the chair, and the sorcerer as he was visualized through Jordan's demeanor came back.

"Sonya Blade." His voice was low, serious, and his eyes stared deep into her as though he knew everything and yet nothing about her.

"How do you know Kano?"

"I have seen this Kano through the eyes of a more powerful sorcerer that controls him."

"That answers nothing."

"I don't have much time, my beautiful Sonya. You will have to believe me."

"Where is Kano?"

"Right now? Boarding a plane to Hong Kong."

"Hong Kong?"

"There he will take a ship to my island and compete in an ancient tournament known as Mortal Kombat."

"I've never heard of that."

"My island is in a far plane known as Outworld."

"Do you run the tournament?"

"I used to, my wonderful Sonya. Now Quan Chi does."

"And yourself?"

"His prisoner."

"How are you speaking to me then?"

"Through the few souls I still hold within me, including your father, Sonya Blade."

"Bullshit!"

She pulled back and turned for the door. With three heavy knocks she signaled to leave and as the door cracked back into reality. The voice discerned as Shang Tsung reached out to her one last time.

"Compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament, Sonya. Free me and I will free your father. I will give you Kano."

She paused. The doctor helped her through the threshold of insanity and the door closed on Jordan as he screamed and wailed and banged his body against the door.


	59. 59 Sonya Blade

The night was a theatre of horrors. The shadows danced in her mind as they played back the sound of Kano's vitriol spat like blood from her father's skull. The sight a psychopath that bore deeper into her eyes the only thing she could think of was the song her father used to sing.

The hours turned and the cogs of fate clicked and clanked until the light shined in the darkness and daylight broke over the curve of the Earth. What little sleep she mustered between those criminal hours tore away at her sanity bit by bit until all that was left was a zombie that needed even the darkest coffee to pretend to be of the living still.

When conscious finally lit a spark within her, Sonya found herself with gaze cast down at paperwork about the blood of a crime scene she was set to investigate further. Seemed there was no luck for the other detectives, so this was right for her and Jax to pick at.

The blood guy stared at her.

"Donut?" He lifted a white box and a blank smile.

"Fuck off." She turned away and without focus, stared at the words that blurred on the white sheet.

At his cubicle, the closest to the window that overlooked the construction of New York's next high rise, Jax waited for her assessment of this assignment. She dropped it on his desk and stared into the abyss of her mug as he read it over.

"Probably a mother fucking coke dealer boyfriend."

"That's it." She blindly agreed.

"Sonya?" He snapped his fingers.

"If Kano were to leave the country, how could we find out?"

"I don't think he'd be dumb enough to go to an airport." He added, "he'd be flying private."

"Doesn't answer my question."

"Air traffic control would know? Military? We did serve, we got contacts."

"What about Shang Tsung?"

This drew a blank for him, he couldn't figure it out and shook his head. After a quick glance back at the folder she dropped on his desk, he added, "definitely the boyfriend."

"You haven't even read it completely."

"Most crimes against women like her are, plus, the blood spatter report looks like a fucking butcher went at her. He knew her." He then stared up at her, those of eyes hers fixated at some lost point in the mug. "So, tell me, Sonya. What happened with the psycho?"

"Dead end. Just a bunch of bullshit."

"That's why he's there."

"You're right."

"Storm's getting worse." He looked out, beyond the steel and the structure the sky was nearly black and lightning flickered like lights that that gasped for life.

"It'll pass." She reached up with her eyes to stare past the glass, but the sky didn't seem as dark as he described it.

It hadn't. Night fell, though the sky was dark far before the sun had been shoved down into the belly of the Earth. The stars themselves hid, and the clouds roared with anger. She locked the staircase behind her, having burnt the midnight oil until nothing but darkness await her between the station and home. The car garage was a few streets turns away and the walk merely minutes, but as she drifted between the buildings that made up her home away from home, the rain struck her cold across the face.

The bony fingers of light reach down to tap the rotted streets of New York, none of which seemed near to her, but she kept her eyes up when light would streak across the sky.

At the entrance of the garage she found the warm dull hue of light welcome her in her with open arms. Her vehicle was on the third floor and would be another few minutes before the cold safety of her vehicle would sate her soaked flesh. As she meandered almost aimlessly toward her destination, her mind raced. Variations of the same thing played out in her head and she couldn't erase it, not a moment, nor a sound.

Until the sound of thunder wailed as lightning struck the side of the garage.

She moved with haste then, but something was off. As an officer with a keen sense into the human mind, she could hear another set of foot steps. Not so loud like leather boots struck against we pavement, but yet not as soft as cloth, or even bare feet. It stopped when she did and moved when she moved.

Annoyed, she stopped and turned. He eyes rolled with her shoulders as they turned around toward the nuisance only to discover nothing.

Only when the lightning struck the side of the garage a second time did a silhouette form that she could have sworn was not there before, exactly where she had turned toward.

The madness had begun to spread like a fungus within her mind. Sleep, sleep was all that she needed to fix this whole mess. Come morning, she would make her decision about Kano and the psychopath's words, but for now, get home and rest.

Slowly her vehicle rolled down the slope to ground floor and turned toward the exit where she had come in from. The rain waited for her outside like a barrier ready to stab at her from every angle. She stopped to take a moment, the thought of having to deal with the rain as she drove through New York at two am and the deprivation of sleep that now threatened her with cynical visions.

She chose to drive. Home wasn't so far and traffic couldn't be as bad as the rain.

Her wipers furiously swatted at the rain that stabbed away at the glass and what little she could see were the blurred and faded lights of traffic as the vehicle turned. Once glance back at the rear view mirror however, and she saw the silhouette a second time, and then lightning struck and the night took her.


	60. 60 Liu Kang

Every night has been the same night since it all began. The moment his eyes scratch at the lids and tear them down, the world melts away and a million horrors grab him by the throat, force his body into the bed, and each night he is forced to watch as death after death, fatality after fatality is performed on himself, or others.

In each dream, his skin grayish and cracked like the veins of a volcano. Every time he kills them, his heart beats faster and the rush that fills him hardens his flesh, widens his eyes and the joy killed instantly when his woken corpse gasped for air and pulled from the bed each horrid morning.

Liu Kang hung on the side of his bed as red streaks stretched out into yellow as it bleed into the bluish cloudy night. Outside, the vertical screen blocked the sunrise into a portrait box that suffocated between crate like apartments that reached up until the clouds were forced to push them back down.

His fingers wiped the sweat from his forehead and his left eye cracked the middle and index finger for a quick glance at the sky as sunrise slowly blood outward like blood in the ocean.

_Who are you?_

Hong Kong. November 25th, 1995.

It was Saturday, under the sign of Sagittarius. On the small television in his pocket apartment, the news replayed a speech by American president Bill Clinton about a gang that had begun to spread throughout the states from New York to Los Angeles known as the Black Dragon. An underground horde still believed to be fake by some, but those in the force and in the gritty corners of the street knew too well that it was real.

He turned it off, not interested in the negativity of the news. His own world was bathed in the blood and gore of his negative dreams and his emptiness was filled with only silence.

In this tiny apartment, he could over look what little view he had of the port of Hong Kong with the rest of the poor among the rising sky rises.

Beneath the soggy sky, Liu Kang walked the streets toward the docks. At port he worked during the day at the port hauling in the catch, preparing it in the market. It was a daily exercise that bleed aimlessly into his job as a teacher for the citizens of Hong Kong that wished to know English. Many dreamed of travel, or of a better Hong Kong than the grime and muck of their day-to-day lives.

This morning, he cast his gaze far too long at the sea that spelled doom for the ships. Storms, several, all spread throughout the horizon and many ships were docked, unable to venture into them. He had watched the American News to find that strange storms had begun to appear over New York as well.

"Tā mā de." The locals would shout when they couldn't go out and perform their jobs.

Liu Kang would often hear prayers to a God known as 'Léidiàn'. The God of Thunder as it were.

"The Gods are angry, it seems." He passed a local elder at the fish market. Though few catches came in, they still had hungry customers, he still had a job to do.

"It's almost time." The man wailed back, his voice barely able to keep up with his breath.

"Those are old legends." Liu Kang set down a basket of squid on a large trough of ice. He continued to prepare a display as the man spoke.

"The Great Ship that arrives every fifty years. I have seen it only once before in my life, when I was just a boy."

"That's nonsense, old man." Liu jested with him, for he had never seen this ship. Not while he was awake. The more the old man spoke of it, he was sure this was a sight he'd need to see to believe.

"My cousin Shan fought in the tournament, strongest in all of our family."

"Did he win?" Liu casually pandered to the man's story as he prepared more baskets. Now he had transitioned from squid to octopus and shrimp.

"He was killed, but they say he was such a strong fighter and caught the eye of the old sorcerer, that they allowed his body to be returned, so that we may bury him."

"Did the ship bring him back?"

"No, I remember it was on a single wooden boat, a single oarsman. There was only a blanket over him, and when they pulled it off, there wasn't a single drop of blood left in him."

"That's impossible." Liu shook it off and continued is work.

Behind him, the boss called out for the fish to be prepped. They would be last and in the largest tables, but before he could part ways with the old man who sat at the market every day to tell his stories, another approached.

This one was adorned in an old white robe that he had draped over himself as though to protect himself from the coming storm. His face hidden beneath a straw conical hat.

"You would dare disrespect those that gave their lives to fight for their realm in the tournament?" Liu had to strain to hear him, his voice husky and grainy. A loud whisper that turned into a cold white stare between the cracks of straw.

"There is no tournament." Liu smiled, confused by this fanatic. The old man tried to tell him otherwise, but the robed figure in the conical hat snickered over him.

"Your cousin was a brave warrior." He leaned up to look the old man in the eyes, but to hide himself from Liu Kang. "I wonder if you'll be, this time around." He turned to Liu who stared blankly back at him, unsure of how to take this before the yell of his boss tore him from this strange moment.

He rushed in to grab a palette and bring it to his work area, but before he grabbed the palette jack, looked toward the entrance to see the old man and the sea, but no old white robes, no conical hat. He had only moved a few steps.

In that moment, that little glance back, he felt the energy in the room burst with electricity. The lights flickered and out into the sea, the storms lit with lightning. He watched as the market itself seemed to come to life for a few brief breaths before the dull decay of normality overtook it again and he was back to work.


	61. 61 Sonya Blade

Joran scratched the ledge of his bottom lip with the blunted tips of his upper teeth. His eyes were downcast on his hand as they collected at the table in front of him. One pincered the index and middle finger like a cigarette needed to be squeezed between them but only air folded in that space. The other reached over to comfort it with a dull scratch.

He barely looked up to see the blonde cop in black sit down in front of him. His eyes lids were weighted, and his maw sealed tight like the mummies of Egypt. He didn't want to look up, but his brain forced him as the world around him changed and snapped his attention to the only thing threatened his current mooted world view.

"Good morning, Jordan." She spoke, kinder this time, he noticed, but still curt. Still a detective.

He let out a small noise she may have deciphered as a grunt or sigh. She had to have heard the news that he was still do for the electric chair. Someone wanted him dead and the city would never know a crazy man like him was being put to death in the most barbaric way he could imagine.

"Is it possible for me to speak to the sorcerer?"

Jordan shook his head, half hearted, half there at all.

"I have some questions for him."

Jordan was unmoved and sat with a glare that carved into her eyes like the sweat that rolled down his face.

"We can do this the easy way or–" He stopped her.

"No!" He spat. "I said that no one talks to anyone until I get a deal!"

She sat back and looked down on him. He could feel her disappointment burrow under his brain, but somewhere in the microscopic marvels of mental illness was a voice that begged him to speak, and another that wailed for him to strangle her.

She pardoned herself.

He lifted his eyes from the table to watch her leave. The small glass on the white door showed her and a taller black male and one of the doctors. He could hear the muffled tones of speech, but not the words they spoke.

Outside, Sonya crossed her arms and looked toward Jax to one side of her and the radio in his hand.

"We've got the connections to do it, Sonya, but you really want this child killer to walk?"

"He's not going anywhere, Jax. We let him escape an illegal execution, he still remains here in his cell. Death by another means."

"I guess you're right, but something not right about defying orders."

"Who's orders?"

They turned toward the doctor.

"I don't know. It came in from government channels we have no power over. Signed by the mayor, but it was an digital scan of his signature."

"Could be anyone." Jax added.

She looked back inside to see the man stare at her for a long, ugly pause.

Sweat rolled hard down his forehead. His hand wiped itself against the now stained cuffs of his sleeves. He was hot, but yet Sonya, as she came back in, looked as though she was completely unaffected. She didn't even seem to notice the amount of sweat that covered him.

"It's done. I'll personally make sure of it." She assured, but he didn't believe her.

He leaned over and in her cold, curt tone, reflected back at her said, "bullshit."

"My partner back there and I served time in the military. We made a lot of powerful allies in Washington. One phone call and you're free to live out your life in this padded cell."

He looked over her shoulder to see the man was indeed on his radio. Jordan leaned back and looked deep into her eyes. He squinted heavy and grimaced as the heat began to rise and squirmed to find some semblance of comfort.

"Can't you feel it?" He finally asked her as he realized not a single bead of sweat dropped down her flesh.

She just watched him.

"Let me speak to him." She asked and noticed his discomfort as she let that question hang in the air, but soon the wait paid off as the posture of the man straightened and his eyes dug into her with desire and wisdom far beyond her own.

"My beautiful Sonya, you have returned."

"Shang Tsung?"

"In spirit." He spoke so seriously, yet always had some coy curve that she couldn't tell if this was all an act or serious.

"How do you know Kano?"

"Quan Chi has enlisted the Black Dragon and promised them riches beyond their worth to assist in claiming the tenth victory over Earthrealm in Mortal Kombat."

"What does that even mean?" She wanted to call bullshit, but she mused.

"You have not heard from the Thunder God? I would have assumed so late in the game that he would fetch his most prized possession."

"I belong to no one." She bit, but had to ask, "now there's a Thunder God in there?"

"Not in here. Only me, your father, and a vengeful spirit that threatens to consume us all." He stared hard into her soul as though he felt her disbelief hang off her sleeves. "You should have been on a plane to Hong Kong by now."

"Why Hong Kong?"

"That's where my ship travels to every generation to gather the Earth realm warriors. Kano will be on that ship in mere days and you have so few hours left to meet him before you may never find vengeance."

"Bullshit." She leaned back, confident. "The newspaper is handed down to the patients every day. You would have read about the raids on the black dragon here in the city, of our search for Kano."

Shang Tsung curled his lips and shook his head. He was more disappointed in Sonya at this moment than the pathetic mould of flesh he was forced to enter to seek her out.

"What?" She glared. "Prove that you are telling me the truth, or I'll let you sit on that chair and watch you fry, myself."

This didn't affect Shang Tsung. Not a single mannerism of the patient she had entered the room with. He leaned forward and looked at her as though he held the greatest hand of poker and she was too foolish to finish the game to see it.

"You'll have your proof, my dear Sonya, but you'll also lose your father and Kano in the process."

"Kano killed my father."

"Not his soul." His flesh began to redden and he leaned back to watch it all unfold as fire began to encapsulate the patient. His eyes whitened like that of a ghost, but as he faded and burned to cinder before her, his lips whispered one last gasp to warn her.

"Until you free me, Sonya Blade, your father's soul is mine."

Jax and a team of white coats entered the room as the she pushed back against the table and the body fell. Blankets smothered the coil of flesh.

"Bullshit." She stared at the burnt coal of human flesh in disbelief.


	62. 62 Johnny Cage

All the corners on the building moot and bleed like cyclones of trees. Mile high, the Earth looked flat in all its wondrously apathetic curves and rounded off into obscure clouds as it paled over slate seas.

Johnny could feel the difference in altitude like he felt the weight of his world lift off his shoulders and burdened with a brand new one. This one floated through the clouds of uncertainty.

He played the events in his head and it all played like a suspense thriller. Fallen actor taken by a risen star sold to the human trafficking game, given an ultimatum to return to his normal life on the top of the hill of celluloid and narcotics that was Hollywood. The thoughts didn't diminish the anger in him, that tightness in his chest that burned his flesh from heart to cheeks. It didn't reduce the new desire to murder everyone around him. The world had taken something from him, and now it toyed with him like a broken doll held one last time, with thoughts of being stitched together, only to be cast into the trash.

His seat, a smudge the stained near the middle isle as a heavyset man behind grizzly facial hair and glares directed at the actor enjoyed a window view of the world as they passed over it on the long journey to Hong Kong. He hated this man. He hated the man across the isle. He hated every single one of them. Did they every think, for one second, what it might be like to be him? Where he is, what he's gone through.

The thought never occurred to him to think if what they had.

Each individual on this plane was different. Opposite cultures, races, fashion, but they all shared one thing in common.

The Black Dragon.

This wasn't a biker gang. This was a movement. This was a way of life for them that delved well beyond human trivialities. It was a family, and families don't always get along, but there is always that underlying understanding that you must tolerate it, or else the elders get involved.

Who were there elders?

David Bowie?

He only knew he didn't belong here.

He wasn't one of them.

The clouds fought back against the intrusion of the Boeing. The cylinder shook and rocked like a child in the womb ready to break free from its fleshy cage. He could feel each kick and every force of nature that desperately urged to break into the plane.

"Who the fuck is driving this thing?" He piped up.

He was met with stares, grimaces, but not too much feedback until one tall, older man in white shirt and black jeans got up from the first seat in the coach section and looked for him as he moved up. The barrier between first class and coach was barred with a human body, a guard to keep any piercing of that threshold. Johnny did think to break it, but he stood up instead and watched the man, perhaps ten years his senior.

"Th'fuck are you?" The sized the actor up.

"I'm the actor." He repeated the muttering scattered before lift off.

"You part of the gang?"

He noticed all eyes on them like Christians to a suicide. He could see is agent in those eyes. The blame, the disappointment, and the apathy.

From the critics that downplayed his ability to fight, to the studios that turned their backs on him to lay their spines for China. His landlord, now laid out in the ground. The world pushed down on him, this one man that tried hard to just exist.

When you've stripped away everything that makes you who you are, what's left to fight back?

"No, I'm Johnny-fucking-Cage." His answer came with a right hook and a kick to the chest.

This created the burst of energy he had expected. All asses now up and everyone ready to engage the outsider. The older man was down and trampled on by his cohorts. All for none, but one for all, he thought. That was the Black Dragon.

He danced.

This was a dance he had done since he was six. Johnny was a fighter. The music was in his muscles, in his bones, and his spirit. Arms stretch, fists tighten, feet kick and the body moves. All of it in sync with his back up dancers and none of them could outperform him. The black swan amongst his ugly ducklings.

It wasn't until he felt a sharp pain in his back, close to the second and third ribs that protected his heart did the dance change. He lashed out and used his attacker as a shield, having pulled him to the forefront and taken his knife.

They watched the outsider with the knife at their family's throat.

He saw their eyes. Every single void of black and white was nothing but anger toward him. They couldn't see the man he held, nor the life he threatened. Blood coursed down his back as the barrier between coach and first class pressed back against him.

He took this moment, his mind raced for what seemed like a thousand years. He felt the blade like an extension of his hand as it touched the man's skin, right to the grit of his facial hair. All of that anger in them, in him, the fight, the dance, the need in him swiped across the man's throat and let the hot blood shower over cold family.

He kicked the body forward and bashed the door back to break through to the first class.

The door slammed shut, with the expectation of every man behind that door about to burst through to kill him. He turned to find two white couches behind him and a table between.

To the right of him sat a man about his age with, what he believed was a horribly disfigured side of his face masked by a metal plate. The man sat comfortable across the couch, but as Johnny barged into the room, he unsheathed a long bowie knife and watched.

Johnny looked to the door. No one came through.

"This him?" The disfigured man spoke, head cocked toward a black curtain draped past the couches.

Between the two curtains entered Bowie.

"Sit, Mr. Cage." Bowie insisted, even held out a hand for him and refused to sit before Johnny.

"Boss told you to sit." Johnny finally noticed as the the metal plate that settled just underneath the open flesh of the disfigured man also contained a single red eye. No pupil, no whites, just a singular red light. He thought of the Terminator, but dared not say it.

"I'd rather kill you." Johnny spat.

Bowie smiled and like a mime put his two hands together in front of his face. They formed curtains with his fingers like spires that suddenly jutted out and splayed as they came down in an arcing fashion to reveal the face of the old bald man.

The long face. The sunken eyes. The old world that stared through those deep eyes watched the sundown of horror cross Johnny's.

The man's flesh was painted white and dotted, symboled, etched like a religious figure of a native tribe or part of some ritual. His clothing filled his form, no longer the frail old man, but now black and grey, metal and spikes, leather and jewels.

"Sit down, Johnny Cage." The man's voice deepened until it felt like a hollow tube of ancient air breathed deep from the depths of a demonic volcano that rattled his heart.

"Th'fuck are you?" He couldn't move, just watch.

"I am a Sorcerer. Quan Chi. This is Kano, leader of the Black Dragon."

"Fuck off mate." Kano spat, half hearted.

"What is this about?" He couldn't grasp it, but there was no escape from this situation, only understanding and accepting his fate.

"Your future, Johnny Cage."


	63. 63 Liu Kang

Cerulean skies stared down into his eyes and his face felt embraced by the heavens, tight, warm, and forgiven. As the rain fell to each cheek and the river flowed down the curves of his flesh, he heard a voice through those eyes.

"We will see each other again."

The skies echoed these words until they began to fade into the dull roar of thunder that broke over the heavens. The clouds, blue and elegant suddenly darkened and crashed into one another like great ships at war. Lightning struck around Liu Kang, a threshold of heat and energy he could not pass.

"Your soul is mine!" Another voice echoed, but not the same as the heavens.

Liu stared down at his feet as the ground shook beneath him. He stood on the precipice of a great pit, an old bridge held him up only by the strength of his will. At one end, a cavern of green light that traced a ledge toward a large portal door, but ahead, a spire into a shallow cavern, covered in chains.

The moon watched, wide in the sky, fascinated by his horror. He thought, in a strange moment of awareness, that the moon so large should rake the coast half across the globe in a tidal wave so great no living being could survive it.

It was not pleased and reddened before him. A man, Chinese with black mid-length hair combed slick back and adorned in fine jewelry, cat claws, leather and embroidery that told Liu he was not just rich, but powerful in society.

Liu Kang raised his fists, switched his stance to prepare for battle. All he wore were the grey sweats he had slept in, but the man across the bridge only twisted his lips into a wry smile and rubbed his hands together to clean them of that intention.

"I am not here to fight you, Liu Kang." The man stepped closer, and with each step forward, those hands that rubbed further apart began to form a luminous green energy between them like a thousand fireflies merged into a single point of light. "To the contrary."

"Who are you?"

"You will meet me soon enough, here on my island." He gestured with a free hand around him, and finally Liu got a better look of this dreamscape.

The sea was vast, the skies deep and dark, the moon greater than he could have ever imagined on earth. However, as grandiose as some of it seemed, the jagged spires that threatened to pierce them should they fall and the blood soaked bridge they stood on painted a darker picture the more he looked at the dim traces of civilization on this otherwise barren island.

"We made a pact, Liu Kang, the day the Mortal Kombat tournament went to hell and Outworld split into two." The man let the energy fall from his palm and it slowly began to form into a human figure.

"I don't remember making a pact with you? I don't even know you." Liu's awareness began to shake the bridge around him. His comfort raised as the idea of this dream being nothing more than illusion started to take over. It seemed to worry the man across from him, but soon Liu would waken, and this strange dream he would have again and again each night would be over.

As he had many times before, the man stood back and allowed the energy to take center stage. This is when Liu would began to jolt himself from the dream, as the figure began to mirror his own face.

The vision of himself, skin grey with veins of red light that cracked through the flesh stared back at him. A near demonic version of himself. The man across the bridge would always find joy in the terror found within Liu's eyes, and then he'd awaken.

"Stay with me, Liu Kang." The man begged.

He always refused and the red dawn outside his window always stared back at him with weary eyes when he shook from this nightmare.

Once he held a mug in hand and the world around him began to jar itself back to being, the dreamscape now just a dim fog that fell from his eyes and whispered from his aching breath, Liu Kang stared outside his bleak window at the dull world beyond him.

The storms seemed to subside when he got to work. The sea was grey, sleet like metal, but calm. He took that to mean the seas were weary, cautious even of the storms that had flown overhead.

The old man was gone. The storyteller that sat there to watch the ocean and occasionally buy raw oysters from them was no where to be found on this grey, dull day. Liu was concerned, but the daily grind of life and work kept him busy. Fewer catch to put out and fewer hours to work this maudlin day. It started to wear on him come time for the sun to peak its head over the world and glare with its midday heat.

There was no sun. Just clouds, and the threat of a storm over uncertain seas and a barely living city.

He checked into the office and pulled out his card from the file to clock out, ready to head out before the night had even thought to approach, when he caught a glimpse of what he thought was the old man come to sit on his perch and tell his tall tales.

"Thought you weren't coming today." He called out with a smile.

"Not today." The man in the conical hat answered back.

The man was tall, in old ragged robes that covered his body and a long, wide straw hat with a tapered point that splayed out with little breaks in the straw to peer beyond the veil of the shadows it created. He stood at the display for the shark caught, aimless throughout the ocean just like the sailors.

"I wouldn't eat these, if I were you." Liu approached. "It's bad for the shop, but shark is typically full of mercury."

"No one said man was perfect." The man reached out to run his index and middle finger tips along the smooth side of the shark's back toward the fin.

"What about God?" Liu presented.

"Even the gods aren't perfect." Liu Kang caught a glimpse of the man's eyes as watched him turn from the shark toward him.

"You believe in more than in one?"

"Do you believe in any?"

"No." Liu replied with an ugly pause between them before the man turned away and whispered back.

"Shame." The robed figure began to depart, one glided step after the other with effortless movement further from Liu, but this time he followed.

When the robed figure realized Liu was at his side, he tilted his head up, which allowed his follower a glance beneath the conical hat.

The man was pale, and an older gentleman with nearly full white hair. Liu could see some grey strands draped elegant past the threshold of his face and the robes. His eyes looked as though crows had scratched him for years and years, and yet did not look older than the storyteller, or even too much older than Liu. Perhaps, Liu thought, this is what wisdom looks like.

"Who are you?" Liu stopped him. "You come here every other day for months and don't say a word, suddenly an old man talks about fairy tales and you think you don't shut up."

The old man stopped and lifted his head further to let Liu see him more fully, though the rest of his body was still shrouded in the old robes. His eyes were white, almost cataract, but a dull hued void of pupils stared back at him.

"I tried to find you with the Shaolin Monks, instead I find Kung Lao." The old man replied.

"You're a stalker then, great." Liu through up his arms and glared, "last thing I need is to be catfishes by an old man with delusions of grandeur."

"Enough." The man's voice commanded him. It echoed and carried gravity Liu had never felt could come out of an old man like him. "I'm here to prepare you."

Liu wasn't sure how to think. He looked into those white eyes, and they stared back, almost through him. He tried to think of what this meant. If it wasn't stalking, which he was thoroughly convinced about, perhaps it would be something about those fairytales the old storyteller told.

Instead he glanced down the alley to find his boss with arms out, expectant of his employee to have met him before the shift's end. He looked back at the robed man, the conical hat down again and his back turned.

He chose not to respond and return to that daily grind.

The man finally spoke, his voice clear and deep like thunder as it rang through his ears. "Listen to Shang Tsung."

Liu traced his steps back with his eyes to find the man has vanished. Just alley, just crates and trash, a dumpster and two girls that walked up with shopping bags.

The elevator broke. The grey walls blended like the sea as he waited for it to lift him up to his apartment. There he threw off whatever burdened his flesh, but sleep captured him before any drip of hot water could sooth that working soul.

He stared up, the ceiling fan swayed as it always did. It blurred into lines and the soft hum cooed him to sleep just as it did every night before. He'd wake up, go to work, and live out his life a slave to mundane humanity.

Then he'd dream. The bridge seemed longer this time, but cracked and pieces of it he remembered were there, were not. He looked down the side to find reddened spikes stare back up at him.

"You're soul is mine!" That voice, that tone, it was always what summoned the other man. The sorcerer watched him fumble on the bridge, but noticed a slightly more aware Liu Kang, not so much awake, but of his dream surroundings. He tinkered with the cat's claws on two of his fingers and spoke, almost impatiently, "how far shall we go this time, Liu Kang?"

"Who are you?" Liu Kang approached, but the man always seemed further away as the bridge grew with each step.

"I am the sorcerer Shang Tsung, and this is my island."

"Tell me, why do I keep coming back here?"

"Bad food?" Shang Tsung jested, poked at the dream walls around them with a twisted smile, but the ugly pause between them told him Liu did not get it. He added with a flick and swish of his wrist to change their surroundings into an almost desert like ground beneath them, "perhaps there is something you yearn for?"

There was a great throne between them. An arena filled with peasants that looked near medieval in apparel and the skies were a dark shade of purple and blue like a dense smog, but it was no cloud. It was clear sky above him, and heat beneath him.

"Where is this?" Liu was lost in this world.

"You're not the Liu Kang I remember." Shang seemed disappointed, and it reflected as the arena began to crumble, blood stained the hot sand beneath them. "I remember all too well when Quan Chi interrupted the tournament. You made a pact with me that day."

There was no answer for him. Liu watched the world and the walls of their reality begin to degrade. He had begun to wake up.

"This should be us here, instead defiled by that coward." He showed Liu Kang one last image.

They stood together on a spiral staircase that reached an upper level that looked down over a red logo of a dragon with metal spikes that reached out to pierce the air above it. Liu Kang stood opposite Shang Stung, who was dressed down in black and his nose bled. He noticed a woman chained to a whole, adorned in a brown tattered dress and a man with a well groomed head of hair, and stern eyes that watched him intently beside the woman.

"What do I do?" He could feel his breath deepen, his eyes moved faster in their sockets. He had little time to seek an answer.

"You must free your soul." Shang Tsung replied, almost like a whisper as the waking world pulled Liu by the throat and jolted him up from the bed.


	64. 64 Sonya Blade

The mirror stared back at her in disbelief. The eyes beyond her conscious just black holes traced by dull white hills. Her hair, a wet mess that stuck to her flesh and the room a warm fog after a long shower. She had wiped the mirror clean to gaze into those cold distant eyes. She couldn't believe the face of the woman that stared back was hers.

_What do you believe in?_

Her home felt cold upon arrival. Her flesh ached to get out of her work clothes and it crawled with an uneasy trickle of discontent when she touched it to try and rub, or itch that feeling away from her shoulders.

In the shower she had hoped to find solace, but only found her hand turned the knob hotter and hotter until she couldn't stand under the water any longer than a second. That's when she remained there to let it burn her thoughts away.

Her eyes reminded her of her father's, lips of her mother, she had her father's stubborn flesh in the shape of her mother. All of this from her toes to the hair that fell around her to become what she saw in the mirror as this unknown entity she couldn't quite figure out anymore.

She looked back into the living room at the mess of clothes that formed the cold identity of the detective that let work control her life, and destroy her emotions. Back in the mirror, somewhere in the light buried within the darkness of her eyes was a girl that forgot she was loved, and forgot to love.

Crack!

She glanced back toward the living room. Drapes, television, couch, all she could see from the doorway. She heard a sound, she knew she had.

Bare flesh and barely armed, she slowly stepped toward the doorway and lingered at the edge, just out of view so she could see down the hallway toward the bedroom.

Nothing.

Her gun was in that mound of clothing.

She heard another sound, softer, like a foot step in the kitchen.

She turned to gaze around the corner of the door way toward the entrance and the curve that lead to the kitchen.

Nothing.

Her eyes scanned back until they met a form that laid on the floor, blood and bone shattered across her beige carpet.

A quick blink and it was gone.

He was gone.

She didn't want to believe, but the form was the shape of her father after the gunshot that she had watched again and again.

She had studied this like it was her job. At some point it was, but once he entered the equation, Stryker had taken her off. Still, that image now burned into her head, now stained her carpet in that quick horrid glance.

She stepped out quickly to get to the mound of clothing.

Another figure stepped out from the kitchen, a robed man in white, or grey, or something she couldn't quite discern until she shot off a single round at the intruder.

Bang!

The doorway to the kitchen was suddenly vacant, save for a new hole that punctured the wood.

She turned around, toward the hall, back toward the bathroom.

"You may want to cover yourself up first." A voice alarmed her, and she shot off another round in the direction of the hall way.

That figure stood in the darkened hall as his old white robe began to drip with red. She was ready to fire again. The man would not fall.

Click, she prepared, no words, no movement.

The hallway cleared. The figure seamed to have disappeared in the shadow and the white light flashed to her right, where the television burst with energy.

"Guns never work." The man held her gun at the barrel and she aimed for his heart, but as her body turned, he was gone, just like the gun her finger squeezed to pull a nonexistent trigger.

"Get dressed." The man waited at the doorway of the kitchen.

She finally got a good look at him, though he averted his gaze from her so as not to see her full form. He wore old, worn out robes of white, or grey, or perhaps the color had faded with age and dirt. The blood that had spattered already gone from his clothing, and the wound hidden underneath a long conical hat that threatened to get stuck between the doorway of her kitchen and living room, so he stood at the entrance and waited.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"That mouth." He snickered beneath his breath. "Get dressed, I won't ask again."

An ugly pause followed until the tension between them burst through the television in an electric display.

It was a while before he saw her again. She peered out of the bedroom just to see if he was even real. She had clothed herself, white tanktop, blank pants, combat boots and dog tags around her neck. She was ready for a fight.

The man turned and she could see a dim white glow she interpreted as his eyes on her and then a curve she took for a smile, almost like her father's, as he tried to hid it.

"I'd almost mistake you for her, if I didn't know any better." She didn't understand, and his voice was soft spoken, almost like a whisper that scratched the roof of his mouth.

"Where'd the bullet hit you?"

He leaned up to show her. She knew she had struck him clean in the forehead, but there was nothing there.

"Missed." He snickered.

"Bullshit. I don't miss."

"You're right." He tossed the gun back to her and she watched it land with a click and thump at her feet. "Want to try again?"

She wanted to.

"Earth realm needs you, Sonya Blade. I need you. We don't have much time."

He waited for her to respond, but she wouldn't. He twisted an ugly smile to himself and stepped almost playfully toward her.

"What do you believe in, Detective?"

Her brows furrowed, she wasn't sure how to answer this. She reached for the badge at her left pocket, and he nodded, reached out to stop her gesture with his own.

"No need. I know what you believe in, I can see through you."

"Fuck you."

"If you're to fight in the tournament, you will need to believe in yourself."

"What tournament?"

"The tournament that will help you find who you really are." He watched her eyes, but she stood, cold, guarded. He added, as if to throw a bone for a reaction, "and closer to Kano."

"You know him?"

"All too well."

"Then take me to him."

He watched the brick wall he tried to scratch at now step toward him with guarded stance. He gave her a wry smile and nodded.

"So be it."

She recoiled as he reached out for her, but before she could break distance, he closed the gap. Sonya became blinded as a great white light flashed before her, as if outward from his form. She gasped, that guard suddenly shattered and her feet misplaced their step until she caught herself on the pavement of a dark alleyway.

She fell toward her side, and reached for a barrel that teetered and threatened to drop her in her sudden surprise. He reached again, this time to steady her, as her father might, and held her until she was comfortable.

"Where are we?"

"Hong Kong." He watched her absorb all of his. Cracks in the armor he searched for so that he could let his words slip into and beg the true woman he sought out come forth. "Not far from the docks where the ship will come."

He watched the two exits of the alley. They were between a restaurant and a storefront, both abandoned. They were safe, his light would not have been seen. She could find her feet again and stand, shake off the sudden flash of light and brushed herself off.

"You'll get used to it." He snickered.

"Not sure what you mean by that." She glared, then leaned up to survey her surrounding.

Grafitti, text on the walls and crates, this was not New York. The cold wind that caught her and the pain of smog in her lungs. This was definitely not her home either.

"If you don't believe in yourself, Sonya, trust in me first." tossed her his white robe to wrap around her. "I believe in you."

She watched him turn away, to discern which direction to take. She had no choice but to wrap that old cloth around her shoulders. It was a lot warmer than she expected, though each touch seemed to elicit a small electrical shock against her wet hair.

"I don't trust anyone, but if you can help me bring down Kano and the Black Dragon, what choice do I have?"

He looked back, his eyes stern despite covered in white, and glared through her like she had upset her father all over again. She recoiled some from his glare, but it weakened into a twisted smile.

"All we have now are the choices we make." He added, "I believe you'll make the right ones. Trust your heart, Sonya Blade."

She wasn't sure if she had one.

She wasn't sure of much anymore.

He moved off down the alley toward the sound of sea swells and gulls. She stood uncertain if she should follow, and gazed down at the rotted concrete, the cold reflection of the hazy sky looked back at her and an odd, familiar object seemed to comfort her.

Her gun.

She followed quickly behind him, the weapon hidden in her robes.

Finally, something she could believe in.


	65. 65 Liu Kang

Past the docks mountains awaited. The island beyond the major city called out from beneath the colorful sky as day gave way to night. The mountains appeared like silhouettes and shadows as Liu Kang watched the revolution along his slow trek from the fish market.

At the docks, bright blue and red boats had been tied and fisherman scattered like he from the ocean. The storm began to give way, but just as the thunder and lightning rolled slowly past Hong Kong, a dense fog lifted into the air from the rain that had covered the land and settled into dark black clouds. It was a sight he had never seen before in the few years he had lived here.

Tonight, his lessons had been cancelled. Too few students able to make the trek, so he would make his own to the local bar.

There was no shorting of stops he could make. The concrete jungle of Hong Kong had small glass shops that looked like shipping containers turned into stores, bars, restaurants. This all between high rises and concrete.

He stopped at one with stools that seemed to jut out onto the sidewalk and small dim lights that travelled slightly inward to make way for a short elder man and tall younger one, which Liu Kang presumed was his son, tend to three other guests. The elder man was bald, eyes hidden behind the wrinkles of his age and his voice still loud as he would engage the son, then the guests, then return to the back.

Liu Kang took a seat at the far right, three empty chairs to his left before the next customer leaned on the counter with two drinks already finished for him to stare blankly into.

"Wǒ néng gěi nǐ shénme?" The son turned toward him as he smoothly slid the empty glasses toward his end of the counter and into a sink to be cleaned as he took Liu's order.

"English?" Liu watched the son nod and then look up in thought.

"What can I give you?" He returned, in English.

He nudged his fingers toward the other guest's drink and suggested that.

He watched the young man work. His mind began to wonder as he did, with no intention to focus on anything in the real world. As the glass came to him, he took it and set it back down empty before he could even realize he had.

This wasn't routine for him. He thought about the man in the conical hat, the elderly man that always sat at the docks to talk old fish tales. All of this was daily, the mundane workload, the stories, the rain and the commute. However, it was this new robed figure that had jutted himself into Liu's life that had begun to stir up thoughts of the past, and the pitiful present.

He'd rather not.

Two more drinks would help.

Night engulfed Hong Kong. A beautiful sight to look up at, should the sky not be covered by the thick blanket of black clouds. He thought even the stars themselves hid from these clouds. The commute back home was longer, harder to make without the night lights he used to guide his steps, but the dull city lamps helped as best they could.

Inebriated, he had a longer, and harder time home. Three blocks away, two high rises, and several mindless, homologous apartment stacks and he'd be home.

He could see the bleak window as he stared up along the dull grey stacks that was his apartment. It was hard to spot, but he would count the windows on each floor like a ladder to his own. Several other tenants gathered to slip back slowly into the hive as he had, all but one.

He entered the building, the cage with the mail rusted and bent inward, barely able to be opened. He figured it would be best if morning Liu got the mail on his way to work. His right shoulder pressed against another individual and the person helped steady him. The staircase was great and steep, but the elevator would break down at least three times a day.

"Liu Kang?" A voice almost familiar warmed his ear as he leaned up to look at the person he leaned against.

He looked hard at the face, same eye level as him. He almost looked similar to Liu, if it weren't for a lack of hair and the robes of the Shaolin adorned on his body opposed to Liu's black shirt and blue jeans.

The monk slowly guided Liu Kang up the long stair case toward his high apartment over the dull grey city. Once his floor was reached, Liu was ready to collapse. Without the monk, he would have, so he reached for the walls instead and guided himself along.

"I'm good."

"Are you?" The monk asked, Liu noticed the near bare feet, the pristine look and then turned around toward the dust and decay of the hallway with its graffiti, stains, and dirt.

"I'm here." Liu found his door and struggled to open it. The monk followed him at the threshold.

"I know, for too long, Liu Kang."

He gazed back, eyes tight and mind focused as best it could. Those eyes stared back at him with concern, and he felt a little condescending glare as well, much like his old friend in the White Lotus would have given him.

"Kung Lao?" Liu rolled is eyes and went to shut the door on him.

"I'm not leaving without you this time." Kung Lao pressed his foot against the door.

Liu sank, his shoulders sunken against the wall and he threw an arm out to welcome his old friend in. If only to grant him a moment to let him speak before the door could be shut on him again. Hopefully.

"I told you last time, Kung Lao, I don't want to return."

"Yes," Kung Lao scanned the small apartment. The stacks closed in the view from the window and the air was thick around them. "You've escaped your family for the cage of society."

"You always listened to them, you don't understand." He pushed out, several slurred words tied the sentence together like a wet rope.

"I understand." Kung Lao nodded and locked back, he stood at the window as Liu stood, slouched by the door. He smiled, thin, and pathetic, but genuine enough from him. "You wanted something more in life. Something more than what you had."

"Now look!" Liu threw his arms out at the pitiful waste of his life. "See what I have? What do you have?"

"Passion." Kung Lao almost looked down him, and Liu could see the eyes of his father bore down into him. "Other than that? Nothing more than you."

"Fuck you, I have passions."

"I'm sure you did," he added, "but you've lost them in this prison you've put yourself in."

"I make a living! I work and teach and–"

"And forget who you are." Kung Lao took a step forward, "forget what Raiden told you."

"There's no such thing as a Thunder God. That was just some old man in the academy they told us was Raiden to make us listen, behave. Be slaves to the White Lotus."

"He said you were important, that you were needed." Kung Lao shook his head, the sight before him was almost unbelievable. "I don't see it. You're just some random guy on the street, being suffocated by your own life."

"Fuck off." Liu held the door open for him. Kung Lao could see the false welcome had quickly worn out.

"Raiden wanted me to talk to you, try to convince you to fight in the tournament. He'll be disappointed."

Liu watched the orange hues of fabric waft past him, vibrant against the dull ache of his apartment wall.

He stopped Kung Lao with a question, one he didn't want to ask, but didn't want to let his counterpart leave with the final word.

"That old man's here? In the city?"

"You've already seen him." Kung Lao turned with a smile, disappointed, saddened, and broken. "You were the chosen one. Unfortunate. I would have chosen someone else."

The door slammed behind Kung Lao and Liu let his body sink to the floor.

As day splintered through the dust of the window and cracked over Liu's eyes, he held a hand out before himself, still at the door after he had passed out. It was too early for work, but he was quick to gather clothes and rush out of the apartment.

He pierced the alleys and blocks toward the fish market and scrutinized each body he saw. He looked for the man in the conical hat, but after minutes of focused scrutiny and a hard trek up and down the docks, he could not find him.

"If you really are the Thunder God, you will come to me!" He nearly screamed.

At his work, tired and exhausted before he could even clock in, he had gave the docks one last look before he turned away and into the market.

Past the squid, the tuna, shark, octopus, shellfish and spices, he turned toward an employee only door, a small hall that had the boss's office and a bathroom, he struck the door, ready to start a hard day.

A shape caught his eye. White and grey, old and tattered, the robed figure perused the fish down the end of the market with another person at his side, female in white tank and jean shorts. It struck him odd, but he thought if he should go, or clock in.

The man stopped, and the hat turned up to let Liu see the man's face, albeit from a distance.

"Who are you?" He called out to the older man.

"You're not ready yet." A voice caught Liu Kang from behind. The man stood between him and the door. "Not until you can ask yourself the same question, and know the answer."

The face stared back at him, disappointed, but those white eyes had a gleam of energy to them, like streaks of lightning that stretched across them.

"You're him?" Liu reached for answers, but the man only stared for a long pause until the woman joined them.

"Sonya Blade. Combatant in the Tournament." Raiden nodded to her, introduced her. "This is Liu Kang. Fish monger."

"No." Liu didn't like that. His eyes tightened, his lips screwed, he didn't like that at all. He couldn't answer the man, couldn't object, but he turned toward the woman, blonde, a cold face that stared at him and expected answers just as he did.

"Then who are you?" Raiden's eyes sparked, a curve turned that disappointed stretch of lips into an amused grin.


	66. 66 Johnny Cage

Thirty thousand feet above the planet and he couldn't escape his head. He sat back in as little comfort as possible and let his eyes wander between the disfigured man and the painted sorcerer.

Not days ago he was a man that was on the way back to Los Angeles to sign a deal for a new film. The sun that shined down with a smile upon him and the clouds that parted ways for his. Women bent when he was rigid, and the people reached out when he'd walk on their drool like water.

Every breath, hallelujah.

Threatened by the weight of normality and desperation, he couldn't foresee himself with the plastic of mundanity suffocate him like the people he stepped over. No money, no love, no identity. Just a human that walks the Earth like everyone else until they die. He couldn't do that.

Every breath, just getting through it.

The world is filled with a secret whisper that beyond all the hard work you do, the bleeding and the crying too, all of it just something temporary. He didn't believe in that. If you could look on the fake hills of Hollywood down at society, you're no less human, but that human struggle is less so.

He looked out the window of the plane at the mourners, little vacant dots he could pretend were ants the sunlight would burn away from the surface. Above it all, he would survive that burn, that scorched Earth. On this fake hill.

Now every breath, hell-for-you-all.

Back at the red eye and into the sunken sockets of Quan Chi, he took in the foul odor of both men, including himself. He realized that despite the desperation, this was no saving grace, but slavery through a better lens.

"What do we do?" He asked, unsure of the gate he passed through to escape broken humanity.

With his good eye, the disfigured man glared through Johnny. The blood of the fallen gang member pooled from the door and the man was not pleased. Knife in hand, twirled and toyed with, he kept his eye on the newcomer.

Quan Chi, strange name for a strange guy, bore into Johnny with those skull traced eyes and twisted the right corner of his lip, tempted to speak truth, tempted to lie, tempted to say nothing at all.

He chose to speak, "I have seen the future." He added after Johnny tried to crack at him, "yours. Mine, and events that unfold, up to a point."

"You can see the future?" Johnny pondered.

"Saw it, not see it. The future is never set in stone, but I have seen events unfold that lead me to believe you are the seed that becomes the most important key to it al."

With a sudden breath, disbelief.

"Tell me, what do I do?"

"Save the realms."

"The realms? This all a big game of dungeons and dragons?"

Kano liked that, but he kept quiet.

"Mortal Kombat, the great tournament held once every generation. It's what binds the realms together, or destroys them. I have foreseen something else exists that does that with the power of a God."

"There is no God."

"What makes you think that?" Kano intervened.

"Why would an all loving, knowing, and omniscient deity allow such death, horror, and destruction among the innocent and evil so apathetically?"

"An evil God." Quan Chi added.

"That would assume that he acted out on those urges. The world would be worse, wouldn't it?" He let that hang, and added, "instead we have this boring, harsh, apathetic world that doesn't care if you're a billionaire or penniless, saint or sinner. Innocent or evil, it's just the world we live on, and there's no point to it."

"Grim, nihilistic, pathetic." The sorcerer commented.

"Reality. I enjoyed life by staying on top, but that doesn't mean I couldn't smell the shit on my shoes."

"Well," Quan Chi took in a deep breath and glared, annoyed. He knew better, and and needed Johnny to know as much. "You're a fool. A child that has yet to really understand reality for what it is."

Johnny sat back and watched the two stare. Quan Chi took that moment to prove it.

"The gang will get there on time, let me show you what I have in store for you both."

His fingers crunched and curled, arms moved and danced in slow circles until a green light surrounded them and blinded them.

When the ugly world filtered through his eyes he could only see darkness. The grim grey of the sea and the dark clouds above it. There was no land in sight.

He turned, Quan Chi and disfigured man emerged beside him on an old ship. Every step was a crack in the wood that sounded and felt as though they'd fall through. At the head, he saw the shape of a dragon guide the ship along, but the entirety of it escaped him.

"Where are we?" He saw raised levels with doors and a metal grate that overlooked the lower level where men in heavy wrappings passed by with large barrels and boxes.

Quan Chi looked out to the sea, gazed up at the black clouds and watched as the sky cracked and cackled. He snickered and turned, the look on Johnny's face of horror and awe was worth the pain that stretched through his body from the spell that had drained him.

"The wormhole to Earth Realm. The abyss. The nothing between the realms." He answered, as Johnny moved forward with Kano to observe their surroundings.

"This ship will take us to my island where the Mortal Kombat tournament will take place. There, Johnny Cage, you will carve out the future I had foreseen for you. It's why I chose you."

"Something more than human?" He looked back into those sunken eyes.

"You were always destined for greatness." Quan Chi took his shoulder and watched the eyes of a man that finally believed.


	67. 67 Liu Kang

"In the end, you belong neither to the light, nor the darkness. You stand alone."

Raiden spoke before Sonya, Kung Lao, and Liu Kang. Night had fallen over Hong Kong and the docks were busy with all walks of life that Liu Kang had never seen here before. Raiden paced, slow, methodical, and his voice commanded attention.

"Together we can defend Earth realm against the sorcerer Quan Chi, but without the strength inside each and everyone of your souls alone, it cannot be done."

"There can only be one champion." Kung Lao explained.

"Exactly." Raiden stopped and turned toward the group. "Near five hundred years ago, Quan Chi and the brotherhood of the shadow interrupted the Mortal Kombat tournament. It split Outworld into two, and balance between the realms disrupted."

"The realms?" Sonya stared, as unsure of all this as Liu Kang, but he knew the story.

"We're told that the tournament is what binds the realms together, or destroys them. Beings from all across the realms gather to compete to save their worlds, to show their strengths, to conquer other realms." He repeated from memory.

Kung Lao added, "it is a tradition handed down by the first of the gods. The Fire God and his Goddess. Only through Mortal Kombat can peace be maintained between the realms, and only through it can they come together to disrupt that."

"That ridiculous." Liu Kang scoffed, he folded his arms and blocked Kung Lao from his head as best he could.

"I've seen many tournaments before and after. Because no true champion was crowned many years ago, it has caused a ripple effect throughout all subsequent tournaments, an unbalance." He paced again with full attention off is pupils on him. "Mortal Kombat is meant to be a festival of life. It's meant to help maintain order in the realms, even when deciding their fate. Quan Chi has taken full advantage of this to steal every tournament held since, under the apathetic eye of Outworld's emperor, Kotal Kahn."

"The true host of the tournament." Kung Lao explained.

"Yes, as it takes place in Outworld, Kotal Kahn is meant to rule over each tournament, but has delegated that duty to the devious sorcerer."

"No one has survived the tournament long enough to challenge the sorcerer, or the emperor himself. So the broken cycle continues. Until now." Raiden turned toward the docks as all eyes set upon the mist that grew like a great beast beyond the market square and the sea beneath. "It has begun."

A great wooden ship emerged from the mist as thunder cackled and clapped around it. A dragon at the forefront ready to pierce the stale air that barely scraped the torn masts. To Liu Kang, it looked like an old pirate ship, but in all his years in Hong Kong the old man's stories began to trickle into his mind. He thought they had gone in one ear and out the other, not stored up in the recess of his mind to stab him now as they began to finally unfold before him.

Slowly it turned toward the longest cement dock available and a chain unleashed a dented, old ramp that granted access to those who dared to step onto the ship.

"Shall we?" Raiden through a wry smile and a crackle of energy in his eyes turned toward the three and gestured toward the ship.

"That thing?" Sonya wasn't impressed.

"Do you see any other ship ominous enough to travel between realms?" Kung Lao jested as he moved past her with grace.

"I'd rather board the Titanic." She added and followed, with Liu Kang behind her.

The moment his foot stepped on the old, decayed wood of the ramp toward the ship of the old man's legends, Liu Kang remembered a stream of dreams that he had tried to forget. He was on this ship before. Shang Tsung had tried to lure him deeper to keep him locked in the dream, but he would always escape, always awaken before the sorcerer could speak.

The rope was a poor rail, but served enough for Sonya to aid in her ascent ahead of Liu Kang, until he pushed before her, and then in front of Kung Lao. He expected Raiden on the ship, considering he had stepped over first, but the man in the conical hat was no where to be seen.

"Where is he?" He looked around but on deck he could only see other potential fighters, crates, barrels and chains. Behind him, Kung Lao and Sonya looked beyond him. When Liu Kang turned, Raiden had positioned himself on a large wooden barrel, relaxed and his demeanor different than the near excited man that had lead them here. "Don't do that."

Raiden ignored the hint of disbelief and spoke, his tone deeper, more serious. "This is not the tournament I remember taking three people on a rickety ship to." He mused to himself, "so many times before, yet this is different."

"Talking to yourself, old man?" Liu Kang spat.

Rain broke through the dark clouds. They all looked up, with exception of Raiden. The low hiss of the rain did not service to raise his voice, but he spoke on.

"Each of you hold greatness in your hearts and your souls are those of champions that can save your realm, but this is not the same battle. It's not going to be easy to take down Quan Chi, but one of you must."

"Yes, Raiden." A deep voice broke through Raiden's concentration. "One of you must defeat me."

"Quan Chi." Raiden lifted his head from the puddles that slipped through the cracks of the ship and narrowed his eyes as the sorcerer stepped from a side door thought to be too old and rusted to open.

"You're the sorcerer?" Liu Kang eyed him, scanned his appearance.

Quan Chi was a thin, frail man. His flesh was painted in white and red symbols with a gem dotted on his forehead, but he was not Indian. He wore a simple black linen tunic held by a sash and topped with leather pauldrons that curved over his bony shoulders with jagged spikes that reached up past his jaw-line.

"You must be Liu Kang." He stared into Liu's soul. Those deep sunken eyes narrowed, focused, and bore through Liu Kang as a dagger might. His face twisted with deep disappointment. "You are not like the Fire God before you."

"Enough." Raiden appeared behind the trio and broke the threshold of them to approach Quan Chi.

"You hold no power here, Thunder God, nor in Outworld." Quan Chi pecked at Raiden.

"For centuries I've watched as you profaned the great tournament, defiled it in every way you could to achieve victory. This–" Quan Chi interrupted him.

"These are three you've sent to defeat me? To bring stability to the realms?"

"Exactly."

Quan Chi sized up Kung Lao and Sonya next, but neither interested him as much as Raiden and Liu Kang, until he took a second look at the blonde woman that stared him down.

"You must be Sonya Blade." As he took her eyes with his, he pushed past Raiden and never let her eyes leave him, for in them he found what he desired most. "There is so much potential in you, waiting to break free."

"Fuck off." She spat.

Quan Chi snickered and stepped back.

"You only have three champions this time, Raiden?"

"More than enough for you." Raiden shot back.

The door behind him creaked as it cracked. The rust hissed and the wood splintered as it opened wide and smacked a large wooden barrel that refused to let it hit the wall.

"I'd like you to meet the current champion." He turned his head toward the door as the darkness of the room within began to glow with a faint fiery light.

Emerged from the depths of the shadows within, the fire grew what emerged from the threshold was being adorned in black and yellow. He wore a mustard yellow cloth that hid his face, beneath a black hood that cast a great shadow down over his eyes.

"A ninja?" Liu Kang commented, as the man looked like he had stepped out of the history books of old Japanese legends.

The man had a leather bandolier across his right shoulder that harnessed an old black and yellow hilted katana on his back, over a dull yellow tunic and black breeches tapered by old tabi boots held together with tightly twined string. At his left side, a chain was fastened around a belt hidden beneath his sash.

He stood behind Quan Chi, silent, eyes white like Raiden, but held little to no life within them.

"Scorpion, the current champion of Mortal Kombat. Revenant of the Netherrealm."

"What does that mean?" Sonya spoke up, but Raiden answered.

"He is already dead."

"How do you defeat death?" Liu Kang commented, and no reaction was given from Scorpion.

"Chances are you will not have to fight him, for I have new combatants as well, Lord Raiden." Quan Chi added.

"And who might they be?" Raiden stepped forward, curious as the shadows behind Scorpion grew deeper with mystery.

"All things in due time, isn't that right Sonya?" The sorcerer's eyes fell on her and a thin wormy grin stretched across his skull-like face.

As he had emerged, Scorpion vanished into the darkness through a bright fiery light that swallowed Quan Chi with him and the door behind them slammed shut, broken against its own frame. A warning not to enter, and assurance that no one dare to.

"This is crazy!" Liu Kang turned toward the group. "Why have you taken us on this suicide mission?"

He looked for Raiden, but the robed figure had perched on a great wooden barrel again.

"Alone, none of you could ever hope to defeat what awaits you," he continued, his eyes reached deep to peer into their souls, "but if you can find it in you to become a team, to become one together, we may have a chance."

"We must unite if we're to defeat Quan Chi, and only through the strength we give each other will this order be restored." Kung Lao explained.

They stared, a long silent pause until Sonya broke through.

"What bullshit." She was the first to split from the group, then Kung Lao after her.

Liu Kang stepped toward Raiden. He saw the concern that came over those white eyes as he watched two of the three leave for their own path.

"You really are Lord Raiden?" He saw it now, the sparks in those eyes, the depth of his voice, and the power that emerged from each breath.

"Did you ever doubt me, or yourself?" Raiden let the young man see his face completely, to stare into his soul as he did into Liu's.

"I've spent my life running from myself."

"Only you can face yourself, but even you can't do this alone."

"We're really it?" He referred to himself, Kung Lao and Sonya.

"There's others, but I've looked into their souls and from what I've seen, you're it."

"I don't see it, Lord Raiden."

"Give it time. You'll find out." Raiden, finally accepted as the Thunder God of legends, dissipated in a white crackled light before Liu Kang.

Liu turned to find Raiden nowhere in sight.

Alone on a rickety ship off to save the world, he made a path as best he could in the direction of Kung Lao and Sonya.


	68. 68 Sonya Blade

Sonya gazed out beyond the bowsprit dragon. The sea darkened the further she tried to peer into it and the dock seemed grayer with each glance. Along the main deck she found peace between the large wooden barrels and crates covered in fishing nets and old ragged cloth. She pressed herself back against a stack of wooden crates and unclipped her radio.

Hiss!

"Jax, you seeing this?"

Psst.

Hiss!

"Jax here! Yes, I am. What the hell, Sonya?"

Hiss!  
He tried to peer beyond the docks for her team. As soon as she had found time alone away from Raiden, she was able to radio in. She scanned the ship again, only a few stray travelers still boarded and others seemed down climb down to where their rooms awaited.

"Kano is on this ship, I know it."

"You brought us across the world on a hunch?"

"No, but you're not going to believe why."

"I saw man spontaneous combust in front of me, I'm open to things."

Hiss!

"Sonya, this is lieutenant Stryker, we are about to board the ship."

"Raiden said it undocks at O-One-Hundred hours."

"We got some time."

"I'm going to see if I can find Kano and get off this ship before then, if I don't radio you in thirty minutes, come for me."

"Got it. Jax out."

"Get that piece of shit, Sonya. Stryker out."

Krsch!

She clipped the black metal box of a radio back onto her right hip strap and let her gun feel the warmth of her hand, ready to pull at any given moment.

From bowsprit, past the main deck and mast, toward the door jammed by Quan Chi, Sonya travelled slow and remained hidden when able, and normal when other passengers from the docks boarded crates and barrels for the travel. She was welcomed on the ship, she knew that, but if she were to find Kano, she'd have to be stealthy about it and go where she had been told not to.

The door was warm on the handle, the costumed freak, as she had thought of him as, hadn't even touched it. She remembered it looked like burning embers has emerged from the depths of the staircase beyond the door, which might mean an engine room, but she wasn't sure.

She had to get in.

Had to know where this lead.

Had to find Kano.

With a hard kick after a careful scan of her surroundings, Sonya was able to bust the old door loose and it swung, broken, inward. It had come off the lower hinge, but she caught it before the wood would smack against the wall. She needed to be quiet now, as much as possible as she had no clue where this staircase would take her, only that she was not welcome in this particular part of the ship.

That meant Kano.

In the darkness she refused to turn on her light. She had now clue how far the staircase took, or even if there was a broken step she'd need to be careful for. What little moonlight the darkened clouds let peer through this hollow crack in the ship, she was thankful for, but sixty feet in, it was pitch black.

She felt one with the shadow. Slow, quiet and let it channel her deeper until each shallow step brought her closer and closer to a dim light that seemed to have taken her two levels beneath the main deck.

There was a fire down a long stretch of wooden hall. There were doors, open and closed both in the hall that segmented with the ship and on each side. She hugged the darkest side of the hall, the left, and slowly crept toward the nearest door. She peered across to see if there had been a label stamped, etched, or placed on the door. Nothing.

She couldn't test them blindly.

Not without her gun in hand.

She took it slowly from its holster and held it in both hands, steady, sturdy, and careful. She let her arm guide her across the first door on the left until she felt the knob and leaned carefully against the old wood and listened.

Silence.

Nothing.

She'd have to come back for the other, as the hall had arches that allowed her to hide and hug the side without being seen beyond a certain open stretch. There were two doors in each stretch on each side. She moved past the first and onto the second and again leaned, waited, and listened.

Silence.

Nothing again.

She cursed under her breath and turned toward the right side. With two quick step drags she was on the other side. Five feet across, not far, but with the old creaks in the wood to follow her movement, she silence was of the essence if she were to catch Kano off guard, or at all.

Second door in on the right, she grew bold. Her left hand parted from the gun and slowly reached for the wooden knob. She listened first and when a moment passed with no sound, she turned the knob and let it quickly open as quietly as possible. The barrel of her gun aimed head level straight into the empty room, right toward an open porthole window.

It was a bedroom.

Inside the small room, about ten-by-ten feet there was a wooden bed with a thin mattress under the porthole and a desk to her immediate right. On the desk she noticed black wiring, tools and metal casings. This was not the tools for a weapon, but something that looked like a mechanical, or electrical project. Underneath the desk were two black and slate-blue crates of metal make. A symbol on both she did not understand, but looked like the Chinese markings she'd seen around Hong Kong.

She scrutinized it further to find a small design beneath the Chinese characters. An upside-down triangle inside of what looked like three blades, or a circle with three respective recesses to create three blades that jutted out from each straight line. She committed it to memory, but all the same, she realized this was not a room of interest to her.

She watched her breath turn icy cold as she slowly emerged from the room and tucked the door back shut with as little sound as possible. Inside the hall, it seemed unnaturally warm, or perhaps that room was unnaturally cold. She had only just noticed, but had no time to question and moved on.

Past the first door in the hall there was another row of four doors. Two on each side and all of them closed. Then beyond that the next hall door was slightly ajar and seemed to turn into another downward, spiral staircase.

As her feet quietly carried her toward that door, she heard movement and the cracking of old wood being knocked and bent by heavy boots. She had no where to go without having to force open a door and hope it was as empty as the first she entered.

She waited.

Her body straight and lined against the arch that jutted into the hall and gave her only enough cover to make the first shot point-blank.

After three seconds, she heard nothing.

It seemed to take forever for her to move as the sound had dissipated as fast as it had caught her attention. She let a breath out, and noticed sweat had begun to roll from her forehead and arms. Her breath was thick and the room began to heat up. That staircase had to lead to the engine room, but the ship showed no exterior sign of needing one.

She chose to abandon the mission, not for Kano, but for the journey down that hall.

With her next step toward the exit back to the main deck, she heard the rattle of chain, like a snack that hissed when startled. She moved quick and precise, and once half way toward the winding steps up, she heard a loud chain thud and crack against the wood of the hall and reel back up like the anchor was being pulled up grip by grip.

She turned. The dim firelight of the small candles that adorned the walls just above the doors burned brighter than she thought possible. The heat from the candles melted the wax quick. She caught a glimpse of that bright ember presence she had seen when the door opened and the man adorned in that old ninja getup.

From a distance she couldn't see his eyes, or much of him aside from the gleam of a metallic point that raced toward her as a deep voice echoed through the hall like a chamber in a dungeon.

"Get over here!"

She shot a round off at the chain and watched it bounce to the side. He reeled it back in with near lightning speed and prepared to send it off again.

"Motherfucker!" She shot a round off at the ninja, between the eyes.

When the flash subsided he was gone. The bullet struck wood on the other end and she turned quickly toward the unbearable heat behind her to find him with a high kick toward her gut to slam her into the wall between the doors on the left. She shot off another round and struck him in the gut, but the shot did not stop him.

She heard Raiden's words echo through her when she had tried to do the same to him. The gun was useless here.

She shoved it back in the holster and raised her fists as he swung with the chained spear to strike her head. She ducked and grappled the chain to pull him in like a fish then kneed the costumed freak in the chest, a right haymaker to the cheek bone and then he dragged her by the arm she had linked with the chain to slam into the other side of the hall.

She ducked under a straight punch and untangled herself. Quickly, Sonya fled to the staircase that lead up as she heard commotion at the top, but the man was fast on her and before she could reach the top, he kicked her back down. All she saw was a glimmer of burning light before his boot met her face.

Pain trickled down her spine, her shoulders burned with the blunt trauma as she slammed against the floor after a quick tumble down splintered steps. She turned onto her back and looked up as the man slowly stalked toward his prey.

She ignored the warning and aimed her gun between the eyes.

"One more step and I'll blow your brains out!"

His eyes narrowed. She noticed there was nothing in them. White, almost dead.

She could barely breath and each breath was more labored than the last. This tense moment caught her off guard when she noticed that suddenly each breath was becoming colder and crisper and the air around them revealed just how thick and labored her breathing had been, but his? Nothing.

The ninja faded upward into the shadow as a cool draft overtook Sonya from behind. It was like the arctic itself breathed over her shoulders and down her crooked body.

She turned back on all fours and pulled herself up as best she could to race up the staircase toward the surface. There, the air was foggy and warm like the night had been before this whole mess. She watched a crowd surround Jax and Stryker. They had soared the ship, guns ready and a team on the dock ready behind them.

Raiden was there to extend a hand for her when she needed help to stand.

"I can see you don't listen." He looked down at her, but he was amused, not upset. She didn't care much either way.

"Get off me!" She pushed forward and broke the crowd.

In the center, just before the ramp as it slowly began to raise, Quan Chi and the ninja known as Scorpion stood before Stryker and Jax.

"You dare board my ship without my permission?" Quan Chi glared, stepped forward, Jax and Stryker aimed precisely for him.

He gave them a wry smile.

"Those will not help you here." Raiden intervened. He appeared within the circle, behind Jax. "I have invited them to fight for Earth Realm, they're late."

"We're here for Sonya." Jax disagreed.

"Sonya is not leaving anywhere, and neither are the two of you." The sorcerer noticed her intrusion into the circle and turned toward her.

"On my ship, I am the law. On my island, Mortal Kombat is the only law you must obey. Any more outbursts and I will see to it none of you make it there."

"You wouldn't dare." Raiden spat.

"Let them come." He turned to Jax and Stryker, "they and all the Black Dragon on this ship mean nothing to me." Those deep sunken eyes met Sonya and he smiled, thin, worm-like, and spoke only to her. "Getting you to my island is all that matters to me, Sonya Blade."

She spat at him.

Scorpion stepped forward, but dared not step beyond Quan Chi.

"Behave, Sonya, and I'll give you what you want."

"I want Kano."

He smiled and backed out of the circle. Scorpion, still, lifeless dissipated in a burning flame that caught the two officers off guard, as well as all the others that suddenly stepped back from the circle.

Raiden approached her once Stryker and Jax cleared him and seemed to move past her, almost ignored her with his conical hat aimed down toward his feet. He stopped at her shoulder and she could feel the whisper of his voice trickle down the holes of her ears and a static chill bumped her flesh, and chilled her bones.

"You have no idea what you've done."

"I don't give a shit."

"You will."

He parted through the crowd and she caught the stares of Kung Lao and Liu Kang amongst the many faces that watched her. Jax and Stryker stared at her, the ramp now clear from the docks and the ship now set to sail.

There was no going back.


	69. 69 Johnny Cage

The desire for acceptance, for a place to belong burned strongly in Johnny Cage. From the small precipice he stood on in an expansive and rapidly emptied world, he found himself adrift into the vast nothing of solitude and dissonance. How far would you go to find your place in the world? Just how badly do you yearn acceptance?

His thoughts lay adrift like the ship. It moved slowly to and fro. It felt like a pig's trough as the water sloshed and slapped against old ship. His cabin was just above the cargo hold, but segregated from the guests of honor.

The Black Dragon.

Lost like a stowaway, Johnny Cage was relegated to the cabin for hours after the ship had parted from the docks. He heard banging above, commotion that had to have come from the surface and on occasion the level he was on would drop, or rise in temperature. He had lost count of how many times.

He began to reflect on just how far he'd go to return the life he had. How readily he took Bowie's hand, who turned out to be a sorcerer that played him like a fiddle. How easy it was for him to get to this point, to accept all of the devil's tricks just for the chance to become himself again.

Is it worth it?

How far must he carve through the earth until the heat of his own breath can be felt again?

Bang!

Bang!

The sound of steel on wood rattled him from the wooden bed. He pulled himself together and opened the door to find the disfigured man greet him, knife in hand, and a smile etched painfully across his lips.

"You killed one of my boys."

"So?"

"Now you got a choice, mate."

The man pushed himself into the room, Johnny pressed against the wall with a shove as the man turned toward him, knife turned to face downward, ready for a deep slash.

"Name's Kano, leader of the Black Dragon." Kano introduced and stepped closer to Cage. "You're choice is this, ya' die here, before we even step foot on any bloody island, or ya' take his place in the gang."

"Fuck off." Cage pushed back.

Kano smacked the other side of the cabin with an ugly thud. He was surprised by the strength and reflected that with a spit and narrow glare that sized up his opponent.

"Okay," he cracked his neck and rotated his shoulders, ready his muscles for a fight. "No one tells me to fuck off!"

The dagger arched through the air and came point down at Johnny. He curved his right arm under Kano's swing and grabbed his wrist then stepped into his opponent's measure and and carved a bruise with his fists into Kano's ribs. Kano pulled back and lunged forward with another stab. Johnny beat the hand aside with both arms held like a shield and then stepped in to straight kick the flat of his boot against Kano's sternum.

The leader of the Black Dragon staggered back. He caught his breath, and spit with arm that wiped across the stubble of his face and grinned. "Got some fight in ya', fuckah! You can't win though."

"How's that?" Cage in right stance, readied to lunge in, but Kano's nudge toward the door revealed members of the Black Dragon had gathered to join in.

"Cause then you got to fight all of them."

Cage stepped back into neutral stance and Kano stepped forward, dagger at the ready.

"You got a choice, kid. Don't muck around with me!"

He got a deep glance into the plated flesh of Kano, the red eye stared back. He wondered if the man could truly see out of the eye, or if it were just for show. The stench of the men wafted into the small cabin and Kano's breath, heavy with alcohol spilled down his nostrils. He bathed in the horror of his situation for he knew only one answer would get him out of it. How badly did he want it?

How far did he have to go to get out of this tunnel?

"What do I have to do?"

Kano snickered and approached Cage, almost friendly like, with the dragger tucked under the man's chin.

"Easy mate, let me show you."

He grabbed Cage's white shirt with his dirt covered hand and yanked him toward the door.

The crowd split and returned to their cabins beyond the arched doorway that segregated Cage from the Black Dragon.

He pushed and pulled Cage with him up the staircase from level to level of the ship until they reached the main deck. At the top, Kano searched carefully, and hid behind crates and barrels.

"Got to be a surprise." He explained to Cage, who didn't follow along.

Past the first mast, toward the end of the ship, he spotted what he had been looking for. The crown jewel of the journey.

Along the right of the stern, where materials for the ship had been set for repair, just above where Kano knew the cargo was below several levels under, he spotted it.

"Look here, mate." He pointed her out.

A blonde female in all black, shirt and shorts, combat boots and her hair tied in a ponytail. She stood between two men, one of dark skin, broad shoulders and muscular physique, the other taller, same skin tone and hair color as her, but older, more worn and battle hardened. They seemed to argue amongst themselves, but Kano didn't care about that.

He pulled Johnny back behind the pole of the main mast and stared deep into his eyes.

"In order to become a member of the Black Dragon, you gotta kill her."

Cage glanced back at the group, tried to understand why the woman was a target and not the two men.

"Why her?"

"Don't question me, ya' shit!" He spat.

A member of the clan approached Kano, pressed close to his side until he believed Cage could not hear.

"The two representatives of the Lin Kuei want to speak with you about the deal."

"Yeah?" Kano glanced back at Cage, "wait till we get to the island, then you can off her. I want my fair share too."

"What's so important about her?"

He searched for answer, but Kano had gone.

Was this the distance he must travel to attain his sense of self? He watched her with the two, they appeared by their demeanor to be law enforcement. The equipment, the body language, he studied them intently.

"Who are you?" He whispered under his breath, but it may as well be reflected back at him.

He backed slowly from the mast and toward the door that lead him back down to the depths of the ship, oblivious of his surrounding. Unaware a man in white, perched upon a stack of crates had watched him from afar as he stared intently at his target.

When the door shut, Raiden traced the path Cage had taken with his eyes down toward Sonya and a heavy weight fell upon him.

How far could he go?

He could understand the reasoning behind Kano's intentions toward Sonya, but how deep did this cavern travel? As silent as he could, Raiden dissipated in a flash of light into the crack of the door that Cage had recoiled into.

What are you willing to do to find your place in life?

What happens if that place you strived so hard to stand in is not where you truly belong?


	70. 70 Raiden

Redemption: The action of saving, or being saved from sin, error, or evil.

Redemption is different to each individual that perceives their situation with such a loaded word. There is no such redemption without an equal detriment, either to yourself or others.

Absolute perfection requires absolute sacrifice.

As an immortal Raiden feared no one on the ship. No one could kill him, nor even bring him to the brink of death. Not Quan Chi, not even Liu Kang.

What Raiden feared was the loss of valuable life. The pain and suffering he'd cause at the expense of what he believed as a better world. He feared that in this journey to reconstruct the best timeline possible for the current generation that now lead themselves down the unsteady bridge toward Mortal Kombat, that he would undoubtedly destroy another.

He feared to fail Liu Kang again, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage.

He moved with the weight of boulders that burdened and weighted his heart as he slowly traced Cage's footsteps. The winding path along this ship from one end to the other made him believe Johnny himself did not know where he was going. Raiden did not know what path Cage had taken either.

The sconces on the wall were dim. The fires kept low as not to burn the ship beyond the metal plates that held him above every other door. It was perfect for him to follow Cage, but he knew more than one person could be as stealthy as he and kept as quiet and hidden as even a mouse could.

Cage travelled down a staircase that creaked and cracked, and lifted dust with heavy steps as the man turned each sharp angle to reach the lower levels of the ship.

At the end of Cage's journey, Raiden watched him enter the first cabin on the right before another door that lead down a hall from one end of the ship to the next, just below the cargo hold. This is where the dregs of society would be that had been entrapped, or enlisted by Quan Chi. The Black Dragon, The Lin Kuei, and Johnny Cage.

His footsteps were light as a mouse and his tattered old robes barely wafted any dust or wind as he moved, but yet as he leaned on the wall net to the door to listen, he had a moment of panic that he had been heard.

"What are you doing?" Johnny asked from inside.

"I am Bi-Han, of the Lin Kuei, Kano demands your presence."

He was relieved to hear he had not been caught, but worse yet, he'd be trapped in the hall as the two may exit and even more that Johnny would be wedged by fate between two vile, and dangerous gangs.

Raiden's energy dissipated as the door cracked and the two men stepped outside. The assassin known as Bi-Han, dressed in black and their clan color of blue, almost medieval in style, lead Cage down the hall past the first gate that would bring them to the middle of the ship.

In this empty stretch with only two doors on each side of him and the portal door to the next stretch closed in front of him, Raiden felt safe enough to return to physical form.

"Spying, are we, Lord Raiden?" As his foot pressed against the wood, the right door cracked inward and Quan Chi's voice weighed Raiden down.

His eyes scanned into the shadow room, a figure of green dim light outlined Quan Chi's presence and welcomed Raiden in.

He opened the door wider as Quan Chi lit two sconces inside and then from across the room, turned to reveal a wry smile and raised brow at the Thunder God.

"One might ask the same of you."

"This is my ship, I know everything that goes on in it."

He noticed Quan Chi was dressed down. Black tunic, breeches and leather boots. No armor, no presentation for the Thunder God. He was almost like a dark version of Raiden with old linen, weathered clothing, save for the long torn cloak and conical hat Raiden adorned.

"What's your motive?"

"Victory in Mortal Kombat."

Raiden shook his head, "no, with the actor."

"Victory in Mortal Kombat." He repeated, slower, deeper.

"Why him?" Raiden narrowed his eyes. Up until this moment, he had not known what Quan Chi knew, and only now had begun to suspect. For such a strange and random target for the sorcerer to select, he had to have something up his sleeve.

"I'm a fan." Quan Chi's words were a barrier Raiden could not breech. Behind that fence he knew something sinister brewed, but could only hint at. He didn't want to entertain the idea that Quan Chi had known of how this timeline had come into being, but the thought did enter his head.

"He fights for Earth Realm." Raiden added, "he from this realm and much like Bo' Rai Cho could not fight for Earth, Cage cannot fight for Outworld."

"That is where you are wrong, Lord Raiden." Quan Chi slowly cracked his fingers. He was frail and withered, but that didn't suggest he was not powerful, nor stupid. He continued, "is Shang Tsung not from Earth Realm?"

"Shang Tsung bound his soul to Shao Kahn in order to fight for Outworld. The denizens of the Netherrealm also cannot fight in the name of Outworld. I would not dare doom the mortal to fate of being bound to the Netherrealm."

"No, Raiden, you wouldn't. Fortunate enough that we are not the same." He lead Raiden to the door and opened it further for him, a kindness he would not offer again. "Kotal Kahn will be watching this tournament very carefully, Lord Raiden. I suspect you will adhere to the laws that run this tournament?"

"Only if you do." Raiden searched for the answer within Quan Chi's eyes. Why Cage? Why now?

"Then we will see who who comes out victorious. Me, and my denizens, or you and your pitiful mortals."

"The people of Earth Realm are full of surprises," he added as he stepped out of the room and matched Quan Chi's dark, coy grin, "you never know what they're going to do."

With no reply needed, Raiden dissipated and his light swiftly swept up the staircase.


	71. 71 Liu Kang

Slowly the rope tugged and the small wooden dragons carved upon the bows of small boats lurked toward the mist that covered the shore.

Liu Kang looked above the mist to find the peaks of mountains, the moss that grew on monolithic stones that surrounded like numbers on a clock around the island. Some were connected by strands of foliage, and some peaks of structures could be seen, but the mist was great, and its obstruction too deep to truly take in the sight before them.

Many boats slowly lurked toward the shore, tugged by the ropes tied to the necks of the dragons. Sonya and Jax stood on the boat most immediate to the left of Liu Kang, whilst Stryker and Raiden sat in the boat to the right. Several behind Cage watched as the mist swallowed boat after boat, but his eyes remained on Sonya.

Those of Earth Realm were welcome to leave the ship first. Those of Outworld would not need the boats.

The white fog swallowed each whole until black figures, druids or monks Liu Kang guessed had dragged the ships close enough to shore that they'd have to jump out and wade the rest of the way.

He could see their figures vaguely tug on the ropes. Once one boat stopped, the robed figure would move to the next until each of them had landed. Once empty, two would push it back out to sea toward the great ship.

Raiden waited for Liu Kang on the shore. Dry, and his conical hat down turned. He reached out to touch Liu's shoulder to welcome him to the island and guide him from the waters. Then the same for Sonya Blade and Kung Lao who had taken the boat behind them. His hat tipped up, and is eyes met across the fog at the ship he knew Cage had taken, but before it peered through the fog, he turned to join the Earth Realm fighters he had gathered.

"What happens now?" Sonya turned toward Raiden, which caused Jax and Stryker to do so as well.

"Now you find a place to rest." Raiden tucked his hands into his old robes and moved ahead to meet with Liu Kang and Kung Lao. "Follow me."

He guided them in the direction of large stone spires that jutted out from around the island. One such carved out of the mountain and carved from that, a near infinite number of steps.

"You expect us to go up those?" Stryker protested.

"Exactly." Raiden pushed forward, and added, "I'll meet you there."

Between Kung Lao and Liu Kang a burst of electric energy flashed and near blinded the group until it faded. Raiden had vanished and only the journey forward remained.

Beyond the beach a near infinite steps awaited them and as the life had been sucked from their tired breath once the last step up had been taken, robed figures were there, tall and imposing, to guide them through the inner chambers of the first spire.

Liu noted the sheer size of these figures, and as one gestured for him to take a left turn down a long tunnel hewn from the stone, he caught a glimpse of four arms on the robed figure.

"Naknada." Kung Lao whispered to him and click and clack from the figure angrily toward the two kept them moving.

"Do not hold up the line, Earthrealmers!" It hissed.

"Still your tongue, demon." A voice broke from the crowd that flooded in like slow moving slaves linked by chains to their prison homes

Liu Kang and Kung Lao turned their shoulders to the crowd, the great opening in the spire just before them and the impatient figures within beckoned them with torches and hisses.

A man, tall, dark in skin and red like the vengeful heat of the sun broke through the swamp of men and women to stand against the robed figure that pushed and hissed others into the tunnels.

Liu Kang recognized him as a Native American, though his ignorance of the western culture could not tell him from which tribe. Kung Lao knew that the Native American would have no choice but to announce to everyone what tribe they were from, lest the white man forget.

"Know your place, Earthrealmer." The Naknada pulled the hood from its head and glared down with bared fangs at the Native that stared as cold and deep into its eyes.

"I am exactly where I need to be." He spat and pushed beyond Liu, Kung, and the others ahead of him.

He stopped several paces before Liu Kang and turned. The two met eyes, but somehow the native's bore deep into him with a wonder he couldn't understand, as though some ancient secret had been buried within the cogs of Liu's mind. He shook it off and tried to appear as though he were just about to wander down as the Naknada forced them, but the Native stopped him.

Hand on shoulder and breath on his flesh, cold and distant, he whispered to Liu Kang, "why are you here?"

Like a flash of light, he pulled away and shook it off much as Liu had. The Native began to distance himself from the two, but Liu Kang followed. Kung Lao, disappointed, followed after them.

"Stop!" Liu Kang called out, but he couldn't quite reach the Native. "Why did he say that?" Kung Lao did not have the answer, so they followed.

After what seemed like an hour as the crowd grew around them and their steps became smaller and harder to take toward the Native, Liu Kang felt head on that cold shoulder and then suddenly the cold jagged surface of near splintered wood.

"In there!" A voice growled.

He took a quick look after a hard stumble into the dark ten by ten room to find a bunk bed and nothing more. This would be their quarters.

Kung Lao reached behind him for the door as Liu Kang looked out the small hole that peered back out into the bleak expanse of grey sea.

"Not what I expected." Kung Lao leaned back to close the door, but the door would not budge.

He turned to find the Native's blackened eyes stared through him, motionless, distant. He entered the room and the door finally shut on its own, torn from Kung Lao's fingers.

"Who are you?" Liu asked, but he really wanted to ask what he was.

"I am vengeance. Pure. What are you?" The Native asked, but his eyes scanned the small room, ignorant of the two adult men near him and the minuscule bunk.

"He is Liu Kang, deserter of the White Lotus Clan." Kung Lao answered for him.

"I did not ask you, and I did not ask that question."

Liu did not know how to answer this. Be literal and insult him, or try to find some deeper answer in a pool of knowledge he had no way of reaching?

"Fighter for Earthrealm." Kung Lao interrupted. "Come to fight in the great tournament of Mortal Kombat. A great honor."

Liu Kang and the Native turned toward Kung Lao.

"You don't get it, do you?" Liu spat, "if all of this is real, the tournament, the generations of combat to defend the realms, the lives it took to do so," he looked back at the Native, who only met him with a cold stare, "if this is all real, then people are going to die."

"Then why are you here?" The Native asked again, but the answer wasn't there.

Not yet.


	72. 72 Johnny Cage

Tic.

Tic..

Tick…

Tick.

Johny's eyes fixated on the watch as it slowly worked its way counter clockwise and then came to a stop at eleven.

He lay naked on a bed of fur and silk in a dark cavernous room that echoed with every breath, every suckle of female lips on his male sensibilities.

His eyes still fixated on that clock as it still ticked but not movement from either hand could dictate where the time had gone. Was this realm going forward or reverse from Earth?

The blurred vision of a pale form on top of him laid the ambient framework for this dissonant thought. Only when she disrupted his thoughts and that bare form came into focus did he snap back and slap her across the face.

The room fell in temperature from cold to freezing. It bleed through the cavernous walls and stretched upward like bony fingers from every door way. He grabbed the Outworld woman by her long black hair and pulled her up from his moist flesh and glared into her eyes like the slave she was.

"Get under the bed and wait for me." He full grasp of hair, the silky smooth feel of female hair, much like that of any girl he had before was torn and her body thrown over the bed to hit with a loud slap and bump onto the wooden floor beneath them.

She whimpered but moved with haste as the door opened and a great chill surged through the room like a dense fog of frozen breath and Johnny's feet came down on her hair as he stood to great the cold air.

"Clothe yourself, Earthrealmer." A voice came from the chilled hall.

"Learn to knock." Johnny returned as he pulled his clothing together from the floor.

"Sub-Zero will see you and Kano now." The young man, his face hidden behind cloth and hood. Fabrics fell around him like a medieval peasant, save for the disguise. Johnny took a hard look at him and dismissed him with a nod.

"Give me a moment, Bruce Lee." He snickered to himself.

"The Lin Kuei does not wait for Earthrealmers." The man pulled Cage with the air that began to freeze and seize his lungs.

"All of you can do this?" Cage watched his breath fog around him.

No answer.

Down a river of hallways through the cavernous underground he had been lead through that was the depth of the island's belly, Johnny Cage found himself being escorted into a large room with tables spread in the center. It reminded him of the convention centers he'd attend after Ninja Mime had become successful. Complete with Ninja Nerds.

"This again?" He approached two men, Kano and Sub-Zero, at the center most table which housed helmets of what looked like robots.

"What do you see?" Sub-Zero lifted his eyes from Kano's red stare and welcomed Cage into the conversation with a nod.

"Money." Kano replied, but the question was for Johnny, as Sub-Zero had refused to break his glance.

Cage sized up the man. Tall, broad shouldered and pale as vampire. Every man in the room, including himself and Kano could see their breath and feel the chill, but it wasn't until now that he realized that chill emanated from this man they called Sub-Zero.

His eyes narrowed as they waited for answers. Arms crossed in a tighter black and blue attire of linen and silk, crafted better than the man that escorted him, but similar in style.

"Cyber Men? Droids? Terminators?" Cage asked, but Sub-Zero gave him the answer he sought.

"The future."

He didn't quite see it, but he could see the various workings of the Black Dragon all laid out with wild price tags and knew that somehow these two men saw the world completely differently, yet were about to massively benefit from it.

"All I care about is the paycheck I get. You like what you see, you get what you want." Kano butted in.

He picked up a red helment. Sleak, but big and long black fibers as thick as rope stretched down from each skull. All of the eyes were black, but there were various colors from red, yellow, blue, even grey.

"I imagine you'll want the blue ones," Kano added, "These are the prototypes though." He meant the yellow and red. "Call it mustard and ketchup, mate."

"They will do fine." Sub-Zero turned back toward Kano, his interest in Cage gone.

"What do you need these for?" Cage finally asked after a long pause to examine the pieces.

He had seen parts and wires, lights and some of what the Black Dragon had built, but this room with the heads, torsos, and the glimpse of the scope this Sub-Zero hinted at blew his mind. In a place as dark as this, as remote and medieval as Outworld, technology still crept into the hearts of those that wished to jump forward.

Here in this twisted realm, it wasn't television they wanted, nor cars or cellphones. Sub-Zero provided a partial answer, and a complete question to his.

"My clan."

Kano turned toward him at the third table as Johnny touched a hand made of fibers and metal, like a glove. He felt like it was the closest thing to touching the hand of Luke Skywalker, or Darth Vader. Which one did Sub-Zero fight for?

"Aye, careful not to damage the merchandise. Got to teach this shithead the art of the deal." He nudged Sub-Zero, but the masked man paid no attention.

"What if they don't want this?" Cage spoke, the question was a thought, but somehow in the cold expanse around him it was grabbed from the dead fingers of if his inner mind and thrust into the thin, weary air.

Sub-Zero turned toward him again, his full body and then moved toward him.

The air was thin, Cage imagined itself at the top of a mountain as he gasped for breath and found only icicles. The cold eyes, white and blue like the ice that formed at the saliva that frosted Cage's lips, stared into him and he could almost feel a smile beneath that linen mask.

"Would you?" Sub-Zero's voice, near a whisper, playful, and sinister as it trickled like ice down his spine.


	73. 73 Raiden

Hiss…

Click…

Beep…

Nothing.

"Nothing's working here." Jax revealed the static of his radio.

"Same." Sonya chimed in with her watch, "clicking, but nothing's moving."

"We'll we're not in Hong Kong anymore." Stryker added, "as if it was any better there."

"We move forward with protocol." Sonya gathered them closer, one on each side. "We track Kano, arrest him and take him back, dead if need be."

The trio had broken off from the beaten path of the staircase and had found themselves near the edge of the beach and woods. Jax gazed back out to the spires where beyond them, a temple of red and gold peaked past the edges.

"We can't take it by storm, and I doubt U.S. Law will have any grounding here." Stryker suggested as he wiped the salt from the air from his eyes. "We enter through the forest, find a way underground."

"We don't know where Kano is. For all I know, he could be waiting for me in the open." Sonya turned toward the spires. "Perhaps we play their game?"

"No. No need to risk our lives any more than we already are. We're not part of this freak show, Sonya." Jax disagreed, and joined Stryker as they motioned toward the forest.

"What about Raiden?" Sonya stopped them.

"What about him?" The men continued on.

Reluctantly, but with no other present option she could voice, she followed them.

The forest was dense. The bark scraped and tore at their cloth at certain points as they tried to traverse the terrain. It seems at times it closed in on them on purpose, and opened up. From outside, it looked several miles thick, but as they moved for what seemed like an hour, they Sonya pulled a few strands of thick roots and bent foliage to pull her body into a clearing that revealed a view of the mountain range of stone, and the outer walls of the temple.

"It's like some medieval castle." Jax commented, he had no other word to compare it.

"Fortified by the natural geography." Stryker noted the spires, the forest, beach and mountains ahead. He stepped closer to the walls to find it made of stone, white washed to look new and clean. "No way through on this end. We'll keep moving along."

"The forest should stop soon." Sonya added and moved forward ahead of them.

Before them was a bog that stretched into two forks that arched like a snake's tongue into the forest. They traced the right side of the land and continued ahead, but as more time progressed, the bog stretched further and the forest closed in tighter on them.

Jax found a dirt path that had opened for him after a hard exercise through the dense bush and slowly it curled along mud and roots, trees that seemed to form a barrier around him until it reached an old wooden pagoda.

"Found something!" He yelled back to the group.

He inspected the wood, rotted and the paint barely visible. It would have been a beautiful red and gold structure when new, but it looked to have aged a millennia with little to no thought for it. Inside hung a lantern from chain, the light long extinguished. It overlooked the swampy water that breathed a gentle mist over its surface.

When his two partners did not respond, he turned back toward the path, still open for him, but no one came through.

Scrape.

Crack!

He turned each direction he thought it came from. The sound seemed to bounce of the trees and die in the water. He paused and listened, but for a long time there was nothing. When he finally let out a long breath he heard another crack of branch behind him where the tree line stood up from the depths of the bog itself.

"This is some Jurassic Park shit right here." He cursed under his breath, for he knew he had been watched the entire journey here.

He focused on the tree line that stretched out from its muggy roots and strained to find where the sound originated. He hoped it was Sonya and Stryker.

"Don't go any further." A low, hissing voice swept him around and his gun aimed between the eyes of the old main in the conical hat.

"It's you!" He kept it focused, kept it ready.

"I don't think so." Raiden approached, eyes cast beyond Jax toward the forest. "I would leave if I were you, or would you prefer to fight here and now?"

Jax turned at the sound of a hiss and the rustle of bark being clawed away as, seemingly only out of the corner of his eye, the landscape shifted and shaped around a humanoid form up into the dense canopy of this horrid forest.

"Reptile." Jax turned back to Raiden as he spoke, he watched the alleged God approach him and explained, "always watching. Best not get lost again, Major Briggs."

"Not hard to do here." He finally lowered his weapon.

"This isn't the way to the tournament." Raiden pressed, he could sense the defiance in the two men.

"Just here for the criminal." Jax pushed passed him and Raiden appeared in front again in a dull flash of light. Jax froze, his gun raised.

"Where do you think Kano is? Here?" Raiden snickered and lowered his hat to shade his eyes as light broke through the canopy with the rustle of unsettled trees.

"I suppose not." He agreed, reluctantly. It was logical, but now he needed to find Sonya and Stryker. "They've probably got thirty minutes on us."

"I'll find them in an instant." Raiden's eyes flickered and the two faded into the harsh light of day.

Stryker and Sonya had remained together. They had broken through the tree line just enough to find a large opening that lead toward a large stone structure, possibly a tunnel entrance. They could see broken ruins of statues and staircases that lead further through the terrain, a courtyard perhaps. They weren't close enough to climb into it, but the guard wall now etched through the forest and the openings of land were more frequent.

"What is it?" Sonya knelt down to inspect.

Here was a hole in the earth. Sealed by a patchwork of branches and mud, rocks and what appeared to be charred remains.

"Clear it." Stryker ordered and they began their work.

A flash of light drew their attention and their weapons at the sudden target. Raiden stood in front of Jax with the two guns aimed at him. Sonya lowered hers first, then Stryker when Jax cleared the distance between them.

"I wouldn't go in there." Raiden saw the mess around them. Displaced earth and carbon, the port hole sized cover of what looked to be a deep tunnel entrance into the walls of the temple.

"Might be what we've been looking for." Jax joined them.

"A secret way in." Stryker added.

"Neither." Raiden assured. "It's a tomb."

"To what?" Sonya stopped and looked at what they had revealed, then toward Raiden.

"The Kytinn." Raiden approached and explained as a seal presented itself for their efforts to unearth it. "The last of an ancient, and violent race of creatures set on complete annihilation of the realms." He looked into the eye of the men, "best not disturb the dead."

"They're already dead." Stryker pressed.

"Hopefully." Raiden raised a brow and a wry grin. "However, has anything you've witnessed here adhered to reason?"

"No." Stryker admitted. He looked back at the seal. It was metal, not stone, and appeared to have been etched with the design of hornet like wings that met at the center of a flame.

"Let's go." Raiden gathered their attention, "you have a tournament to win."

Collectively they stepped back from the seal and Raiden gathered them within a flash of light. In unison, the bodies dissipated with the glare.

The branches rustled and Reptile emerged from the brush only a few short meters from where Sonya had stood in their triangular position around the seal. His flesh blended with the bark and merged with the wall as he quickly ascended and leapt over into the courtyard.


	74. 74 Johnny Cage

With the guard walls of the temple, the ruin of the island was less severe. Johnny slowly tracked the statues of previous champions and noted which ones looked destroyed by nature, and others by war. One in particular had several marks that looked like it had been struck by a hammer. Fine dust at its feet mixed with shards and rocks. He tried to piece together in his head who these champions might have been, but there was no face to look into and no shard of stone to piece together accurately.

Even Scorpion wasn't among them. The current champion of Mortal Kombat.

He was startled, but kept his glance on the statues as a voice broke his concentration and the silent steps approached.

"The tallest would have been the Great Kung Lao." Johnny Cage turned to find Sub-Zero beside him. Hands behind his back, face still covered by the linen and hood. He was about to comment on the look, but with the chill in the air, realized he may have been the dumb one to wear so little as a white cotton shirt, black jeans, and boots given to him by the Black Dragon.

"Where's the freak?" Johnny noted that all seven were in ruin.

"Scorpion is not a true champion of Mortal Kombat." Sub-Zero added, "he defeated the challenger of the last tournament fifty years ago, but Mortal Kombat itself has been more of a tradition broken and handed down throughout the era, than a true battle for the realms."

"A paper champion."

"For lack of a better word, yes." Sub-Zero nodded, then turned Johnny to him, and pierced through those deep black shades into the eyes he had so perturbed hours ago. "What do you seek?"

He wanted to tell the man to fuck off. He wanted to do so many things. All the anger and frustration, the tension and disruption in his life had been built up and pulled taut like a war bow that he had a harder time being around people than even himself.

He could feel the chill in the air expand and the temperature drop further. He realized that the cold wasn't the air itself, but Sub-Zero. On the boat, any of the Lin Kuei that had approached him after having met with their leader. This man emanated the very essence of the arctic, and through that icy stare, he dared not piss him off.

"I want the world to see me again. To know who I am and that I am who I say I am." Johnny replied.

"Who are you?" Sub-Zero pressed.

"I'm Johnny Cage. I'm an actor, I'm a fighter, and a legend." He pushed back, "who are you?"

Sub-Zero let out a cold breath that chilled Cage's spine as the linen wrap around his face was unraveled and and set over his shoulder. For the first time, Cage could see more than just the cold blue eyes, but a face. A person.

"Bi-Han, of Edenia, and Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei."

"What kind of title is that?" Cage prodded, he had never heard of either until recent. His ignorance amused Sub-Zero, but the stoic assassin wouldn't show it.

"A legend."

"Then why aren't you among these ruins?"

"Because of Scorpion."

Johnny had to think about this. He had only seen the revenant once or twice, and usually didn't stray far from Quan Chi. He didn't see him as any major threat, but he also wasn't fully sure what a revenant was.

"How do you defeat him?"

"You don't." Sub-Zero shook his head, and Johnny could see the gears turn and added to them with his own ideas. Neither spoke of them, but Sub-Zero offered a different concept, "you evolve instead."

"The robots?"

"The Cyber Initiative." Sub-Zero titled it. "This island is ruins. The past is over and impassive seems pathetic now. It is time to move into the 90s with the rest of the world and meet the future head on."

"That's very progressive of you." Cage wasn't sure what to say.

"This tournament," he pointed to the middle statue, the one with the most damage, "someone is going to replace The Great Kung Lao."

"I thought you said it doesn't matter?"

"It does now." He backed away from Cage as he spoke. He turned left toward another presence, Quan Chi, and with a nod to the host of the tournament, took three steps back before he departed completely.

"The night is young, Mr. Cage, but you should rest." He could see Johnny's frustration like an aura around the man. "Tomorrow morning, the tournament begins."

"Is this why you brought me here?" He motioned to the statues.

"You tell me." Quan Chi dissipated in a green mist. His words an echo within Cage's mind.


	75. 75 Liu Kang

When the sun peered over the dull grey horizon, the mist over the beach began to recede with the water until the land seemed to stretch a mile further for the combatants that gathered.

Wood posts dictated their path and linen banners dedicated to the emperor and his kingdom decorated the battlefield. Among the crowd, Raiden, Liu Kang, and Sonya gathered on the edge of the group of Earthrealm combatants as the hooded Naknada stepped through.

Liu Kang listened to the hiss of their voice and the scratching of their throat as one spoke, announced the first round of combat for the combatants that had arrived.

There seemed to be more people on the island, and even Sonya noticed Kung Lao was not present. Raiden leaned to explain that there were several arenas chosen for combatants and to divide them up appropriately, the Naknada had taken groups to those locations. Only those that made it to the third round would fight in the courtyard before Quan Chi himself.

"The first match will be Earthrealm versus Outworld." A robed Naknada announced and pointed out toward the crowd of Earthrealm's chosen and pondered, "who will fight for their realm?"

Sonya felt the urge to push forward, but before she could move, Liu king and breached the threshold of bodies into the clearing. He wore simple black and red breeches and leather boots with cloth wraps around his wrists that lead up to the elbow. Simple, efficient design of choice for his first round as he wished to be unrestricted, much like his opponent.

"Good." The Naknada threw back its old, weathered hood and the robe itself fell toward its feet. "I am The Warrior, and I fight for Outworld, for emperor Kotal Kahn!"

He was somewhat taken back by this, but there was no turning back. The massive beast was tall, and revealed four arms that stretched out and cracked it's bones and knuckles, but behind it was another set of smaller, seemingly vestigial arms. They looked to grasp themselves like stumps against the reddish brown skin of the creature.

"What shall this fight be to?" It approached Liu and the clearing widened for them.

The Naknada wore as little as Liu Kang, just breaches and and a sash. It was more muscular than the others he had seen, and as he sized up his opponent, a voice called out from the crowd.

"To the yield!"

There was no acknowledgement from either combatant. The creature lunged forward and struck Liu with one of it's lower fists, right at face level and he staggered back to the line of bodies. The next strike was dodged and he moved behind the creature.

Liu Kang swept his foot around to sweep the creature off balance, but one of it's smaller arms reached out for him and startled the Earthrealm fighter. The second reached out for him, only to be met with a tight grip at the wrist. The creature's body arched back and its four arms tried to grasp at Liu as he used those two scrawny appendages to ascend the Naknada warrior and with a kick he jumped off, which forced the creature into the crowd that parted quickly for it to fall against the white sand.

The Native watched from afar, at the furthest edge beyond the Earthrealm combatants. When Liu Kang landed, he seemed amused, and caught the eye of the Thunder God. The two turned back toward the fight.

Liu Kang leapt at his opponent, his body twisted and left food came down in an arch against the creature's skull. The Naknada fell against its back and blocked the stomp and clenched tightly to Liu Kang's leg.

He twisted, he stomped, he tried to pull free, but the creature tugged him down and with two hands on his leg, held him in place, and the other balled into fists and jabbed at its opponent's abdomen. It threw him to the side him and pulled itself up with those tiny arms on its back.

"Do you yield, Earthrealmer?" The Naknada stood over him.

Liu Kang's response was to trap its leg in a vice between his and twist it to stagger the creature. He pulled himself up with a forward roll and used a straight kick to the gut to push it back. The arms grappled a crowd member for stability, but Liu charged and leapt at it with a flurry of kicks that pushed the creature into the crowd until Liu Kang was almost on top of them, the Naknada as his platform to then push off of.

The creature needed to untether itself from the crowd, which gave Liu Kang the moment he needed to regain his breath, to assess the situation, but as he maneuvered into right stance, ready to strike or defend from the creature's next move, the Nakanda brushed itself off and yielded.

"A strong showing, but it is not my place to move forward in the rounds." It explained and granted Liu Kang the victory.

"This was just a test?" Liu Kang couldn't understand. The creature refused to admit defeat, but he refused to win on the principal of it just being for show.

"A warm up, if you will. Now we may commence the true tests of might." Liu Kang wanted to strike it. To knock it to the ground and twist it's neck beneath his feet, but he stayed is body as he caught the eye of the Native, then Raiden and Sonya.

The creature hissed and called out the next combatant. Raiden intercepted, Liu Kang moved forward with him.

"Is this a tournament or a scam?" Liu pressed forward.

"Return to your place in the crowd." It reminded them as they peered around them, that though it fought bare handed, the other robed figures wielded weapons from staff to daggers.

As they retreated, the Native approached Raiden and Liu Kang.

"You should have killed him." He spoke low and his eyes searched Liu Kang's.

"Those are not the rules, Nightwolf." Raiden responded, but he did not hear him.

"You have no idea who you are, or what's to come." Nightwolf scrutinized Liu, spoke low so only the two could hear and stepped back.

Raiden turned toward the inner circle. Another fight had begun. The sea was grey and soulless. The native had disappeared into the crowd and Liu Kang's eyes met with his.

"What does he mean?" Liu Kang asked.

Raiden responded with silence.


	76. 76 Sonya Blade

The island was a temple of ruins. Which ever turn she took, or hall she travelled along there were whispers, cracks, and rubble to ignore. She had already heard of several combatants that had gone mad when lost in the spires. Jax and Stryker had attended one of the episodes and described that the robed figures had carried the wailing off to be silenced. No ship sailed that day, no more screams heard that she had heard once before.

The hewn stone tunnels carved through the mountains spires, but she had already memorized the path to her chamber, where Jax and Stryker waited for her. The first round seemed lackluster to her, almost like the an useless display of bravado than a war for the realms as Raiden had described to her. The second round would occur in the next two days, as told by the robed figures, but she wasn't going to wait.

"I'm going to look for Kano." She told Jax and Stryker, who had agreed to back her up, but that they would take separate paths, figure out the channels within the spires should either of them get lost, or go mad.

The main spire was claimed by Sonya, it held the dining hall and seventy other chambers above and below. It was the most frequented by the Naknada, and the men that followed Quan Chi. The men looked almost like Egyptian's in their style and colors. Their skin as deeply shaded as them, but they were adorned with symbols she did not recognize as Egyptian, but had seen worn on withered sorcerer. When she'd pass them, they'd only stare, their mouths covered by cloth, their eyes judged her every step.

Near the lowest level, where the great dining hall welcomed her with the aromas of roasted beasts and food of all kinds, she found a corner of tunnel that was covered in old webbing. Never travelled, and as wide as a single body. It seemed to carve just above the floor where the hall was and she took a risk to travel through.

Twists, turns, jagged stone, and a dressing of cob webs, the roughly hewn path seemed to take her up and down, and never once opened up or met with another path until she neared a dimly lit flicker that watched her round the corner.

It had to be a sconce light that reached out from the vaulted ceiling of the dining hall. She moved forward and the closer she got, the flicker brightened. When she rounded the corner the hall extended further, but the cool blue darkness and the webbing that now adorned her flesh had given way to a long stretch of dim light that pulsed with each step forward.

As she moved forward, one step at a time, she could just make out the carved opening at the furthest edge of this path and froze as though someone had clutched her heart when a voice echoed down the channel.

"Aye mate, you see the fights today?" She recognized this voice as Kano's.

"No." She didn't recognize the one that met his.

"Too busy fucking your chamber slave?" Kano laughed, but there was silence in response.

She lurched forward, one hand on the gun that stuck her fingers with webbing thick enough to wear as clothing. No use. She wouldn't be able to pull it free and instead continued slowly along the hewn tunnel until a meter from the opening.

The channel turned into a forgotten balcony that overlooked the dining hall. It was blocked by several rotted wooden planks that would have once served as framework for the ceiling to look more prestigious than some stone cave.

Ahead of her, about a meter, large metal chandeliers hung three in a row. The metal bolted to the stone ceiling. She looked over the edge where a wooden rail had rotted away and saw Kano sat at the head of the center table, wooden and metal bowls and plates all at the edge for him to reach for and gorge on the food left over from that night's meal.

On the right of him, three chairs down, another man sat and listened to Kano's insufferable grunts and suckles of food and meat. The gurgle of words between chews and the loud gulps of beer in between. The man was dressed similar to Kano, white tank, black jeans and combat boots. The Black Dragon logo in black on the back of his top.

"So, So, Quan Chi tells me he's got plans for ya'!" Kano chewed and spat.

"I keep hearing that." The other man turned fully toward Kano and leaned back in his chair, which forced Sonya to step back and hunch.

She had cover with the chandelier and ruined barrier, but she couldn't watch. She knelt to one knee and began to slowly wipe away the webbing from her gun as they continued.

"Personally, I've got plans for ya'. Need a new mate, ya know! Yer not half bad." Kano added, "Sub-Zero's taken a liking too. Maybe fix ya' up with something robotic and the two of us can run this operation."

"End up looking like you? No thanks." Kano didn't like this response and she could hear him spit out a thick mouthful of food.

"The fuck you just say?"

As the weapon slid from its holster, she heard the hiss of fabric and metal echo. The voices continued, louder, arguing and disgruntled. Her trigger finger rested horizontal above the trigger, not ready to shoot. She pressed her free hand against the stone and began to slowly lean over.

"Listen, ya' dirty shit, you do as I tell ya' and you'll get what you want, but don't ya' fuck around with me!" She could hear Kano's anger flared and bounce off the stone walls. Sonya could see the back of his head, the gleam of metal and the face of the man that argued with him. His fingers clenched and toyed with black shades on the table, not a single plate near him, save for those thrown by Kano.

To her left, the tunnel rounded back where she came, the floor above the hall was far from the staircase, but there were guards stations all over. To her right, more cobwebs and a winding, forgotten path.

Take the risk?

Her finger gently touched the trigger and her sights focused on Kano, right between the ears. The man looked up, took her breath with him as she pulled back and hunched further, almost completely on the ground. A moment played out and silence fell over the dining hall. When she heard the sucking and gulping of the pig Kano, she returned to her spot and slowly edged forward to refocus her sights.

Click.

Loaded and ready she leaned further and found Kano still in his chair, oblivious.

She could hear her father's voice warn her not to pull the trigger. She could see his lifeless body tell her otherwise. The sound of the building crumbled around them, and screams of officers caught in the wreck. The moment she realized the informant had played her like a fiddle, and the second she realized they had her family.

"Motherfucker." She whispered deep under her breath.

BANG!

The man stood up fast, the blood instantly splattered across the dining table and the skull burst with an ugly hole spat through it. He called for the guards, spotted Sonya, and she darted for it.

Cage looked down at the red eye as it slowly flickered and faded. In seconds the hall was flooded with human guards wielding daggers and staffs, but when he pointed in her direction, the assassin was gone.

She raced, raced at the beat of her heart as it bounced off the jagged walls of this poorly hewn path. It closed in on her, only a meter wide now and twisted upward. The webbing was thicker, the dust coated her lungs, but she had to move.

She could hear the commotion far behind her and the stomping that followed her on the second level. She wasn't sure if they would find how she had gotten to the overhang, but it didn't matter, she needed to follow this through.

Further, faster, but the walls began to cave in and the jagged stone cut and scraped at her like claws that swatted at her every move. Finally it reached a point she could go no further, a dead end and jagged stone that reached out for her the size of fists threatened to hold her in place. She looked around and could feel the army looking for her far behind. Eventually they would find her, but she would go mad well before they find her.

She tried to turn back around, to see if she could wait out the storm by the ledge, but to turn her body was harder than she thought. Sonya realized she had been trapped and stopped herself. There had to be a way out.

Through the darkness a voice called. A hand reached down, but when she reached up to feel what she believed was another person, she felt only stone. She pulled away and looked up.

Nothing.

"My beautiful Sonya." The voice of the man in the white room trickled down those fist-like stones jutted out from the thin tunnel.

She couldn't see. Couldn't move forward or back, but she had reached up. She inhaled deeply and let the gun fall from her grip so she could climb.

"Climb." He reached out to her.

She slowly ascended, one step at a time until the darkness became a dull candlelit opening. Small openings that allowed light through let her see that she had begun to climb the spire further and further up until the the walls began to dent inward and she was no longer moving up, but at a diagonal.

She had no clue how long she had climbed for nor realized her blood had already caked onto her flesh and clothes by the time she reached an opening through the spire that revealed the third one close ahead.

There was no way across.

"Jump, my dear." The voice assured.

"Fuck!" She dared not.

"I will expel the last of my energy to help you, but you must let go."

She couldn't explain the voice, couldn't explain how she had ended up here to begin with. The madness crept into her and she wondered if this is how the others felt before they were whisked away.

With no direction left to go, she let one for move in front of the other and gravity take its course.


	77. 77 Johnny Cage

Blood.

It set his teeth on edge. The very sight of it, the feel of it on his flesh, the wetness that soaked into his clothing, and the drainage that flowed from the canal of Kano's skull. All of it made his eyes twitch and tick like the watch lost in time.

It felt like a blur when the guards entered and Cage had pointed upward where he saw the muzzle flash for the briefest of moments. His jaw was slack, his muscles numb, he wasn't sure what to think. This man that had already murdered couldn't comprehend this one.

What happens now?

From a darkened doorway that radiated green energy, escaped by Cage's eyes, Quan Chi emerged. His eyes cast down upon the blood of Kano, and then up at the slack body and stained metal plate around his eye. Cage noticed him and the their eyes met, then down toward the body.

Cage wasn't sure how to greet him. He hadn't seen much of Quan Chi since they arrived on the island, he had dealt near solely with Kano or Sub-Zero. Now one of them was gone.

"This happened a lot quicker than I imagined." Quan Chi stepped at the threshold of blood and stone flooring. His boots kept clean, his linen breeches dare not sag beyond the boot line and his hands tucked neatly behind his back.

"You expected this?"

"In Mortal Kombat, Johnny Cage, death is your gift."

"Cut the bullshit."

Quan Chi looked back at him, a wry smile scratched the corner of his lips.

"I have a vision for the future, John, and Kano was only a small part of it." He looked back down and bit the edge off is upper lip in deep thought.

"What part am I playing?" Cage pondered. "When do I die in your little vision?"

Quan Chi lit his thin, wormlike lips stretch and smile, and his eyes grazed Cage's.

"You don't."

"So what happens now?"

"This must have been the work of that Earthrealm girl. The blonde one that travelled with Raiden."

"Seems like."

"Find her, you lead the Black Dragon now, Johnny Cage. I'll leave her punishment up to you."

Quan Chi nodded and stepped back three times before he turned and exited from the main entrance.

Cage took in a deep stale breath littered with the taste and scent of Kano's blood. He wondered if Kano died so that his future could be realized, or if all of this was some twisted game being played by Quan Chi.

Whatever the vision was, he would move like the pawn he was into the next square and see where it took him.

Back in his chamber he had found the slave girl naked on his bed, and the fur around her body to cover the curves and flesh. Her attention was aroused then the door shut and Cage tossed his sunglasses to the floor. He was silent, and his demeanor not like it had been before. She leaned up, arms folded across her chest and prodded for information.

"What is going on out there?"

"None of your business."

"I do not leave this chamber except to bathe and to eat. I've heard the guards running up and down these halls and not a single answer. If the island is about to fall to ruin, I would like to know."

"Nothing like that. Just a girl on the run." He joined her at the bed.

He took a real good look at the rom now. The sharp details of the crags in the stone walls, the wood that had been built into it to make this chamber nicer, one of the better rooms in the spires. Quan Chi maintained the best for those that would stay in the courtyard of the island, but in this moment, he didn't mind being in this room, for a hole in the wall it was clean.

"How do you want me tonight?"

"Silent." He spat. "I'm not your master. I'm just." He paused himself and looked at his hands, the floor, the door, the little details in color that he didn't really pay attention to before. He didn't realize what he had agreed to when he took Bowie's offer at the slave trade, he didn't know what he agreed to in finding Kano's killer.

He didn't know anything.

"If I couldn't escape the island, but had to lay low, where would I go?"

Nothing.

He looked over his shoulder at the Outworld woman and half expected her to still be sat up for him to speak to her, but she had laid back, eyes closed, breasts exposed and the stillness of the air caught in her breath.

"The fuck would I know? I'm just a prisoner."

"How?"

She glared, grimaced, smirked, wasn't really sure what emotion to use at that. Why show such interest? She was a slave with only one job to perform. She had no answers, no insights, but here this fool watched her, eyes in hers and begged for the answers with them.

In his seriousness, she leaned back up and covered herself.

"I'm from a small village, we had a leader that guided us to battle under the emperor's banner." She spoke, he interrupted.

"Quan Chi?"

"Kotal Kahn." She corrected. "My village took back our word to fight for him when he was not the leader we thought he would be."

"What happened to the village?"

"Gone. I don't know what happened to our leaders."

"Maybe they were captured." He pondered, she looked to as well, but the thought was erased before she could entertain it much.

"Doesn't matter. That was five-hundred years ago."

Cage's brow furrowed at the sight of her soft, youthful flesh.

"Okay then." He muttered and pulled himself off the bed. "I have a woman to find."

"Not me." She mused.

"No, cause you're just a prisoner." He saw hurt in those eyes, her soft thin chin turned up and her sunken dark eyes narrowed as he closed the gap between the bed and the door. Before it opened he turned, paused and stared at the shades on the floor, then the woman on the bed.

"These people, Quan Chi and Total Kahn–" She interrupted him.

"Kotal Kahn."

"Yeah, that. What would they have done to punish your village leaders?"

"Either trapped in a donjon that overlooked the arena and forced to fight for their lives in combat to amuse Kotal Kahn, or if it was Quan Chi, like me, a prisoner here. Somewhere on the island."

"Somewhere here? Like, the spires?"

"No, there are no prison cells in the spires. The prisoners are sent to the dungeons beneath the courtyard. It was once the lair of a great Shokan prince. Now, who knows what it looks like in there."

"I guess I'll find out."


	78. 78 Liu Kang

You think you know. Who you are, what's to come.

You have no idea.

Kung Lao sat outside the courtyard with the full moon above. It hung larger in the sky than back on Earth, and he pondered if the millions of tiny lights in the sky around it were juxtaposed planets much like Earth, much like Outworld. Millions of little dots with millions of possibilities in other dimensions and realms.

Beside him Raiden stood with Liu Kang, Stryker, and Jax. The events of the night had not gone unnoticed by them. One glance to the far right where the courtyard traced toward the ruined shrine of warriors, the Native leaned against the corner and waited. Other bodies moved around in the night, but Kung Lao noticed none of them were the Naknada, nor the guards. It was as though the murder of Kano alarmed no one any longer.

"This is the price of Mortal Kombat. Quan Chi would say this if it were the other way around." Kung Lao spoke up and took a quick gulp from a rose painted gourd, uncorked, and half full.

"Sonya Blade is in great danger now. Wherever she is, we must find her before Quan Chi." Raiden added.

"Where do we start." Jax was already a step ahead, but Raiden wasn't certain, he shook his head and paused Jax in his tracks.

"There is no way of knowing. I cannot sense her on this island." He explained, "my powers as a deity are dulled in this realm."

"Then we're up shit creek without a paddle." Stryker spat.

"Not exactly." Raiden looked out toward the warrior shrine and eyed Nightwolf. "She has more allies than you think on this island, but I had hoped we–"

Liu Kang stopped him, "Raiden, this is no time to hide things. Our lives are in each other's hands."

He smiled, acknowledged the point with a nod and turned toward the path to move them in that direction. Nightwolf remained at his post and watched, though they never strayed more than a few steps.

"This island belonged to a sorcerer named Shang Tsung. A vile demon of man that tethered is soul to the Emperor Shao Kahn." Raiden explained, but as he continued, Kung Lao pulled himself up and added to the story.

"Shao Kahn used Shang Tsung to host the tournaments, much like Kotal Kahn and Quan Chi. Better a henchman falls than the emperor." He continued, "however five-hundred years ago Quan Chi disrupted the last true tournament and wreaked havoc on the realms by destroying the Mortal Kombat tournament, and splitting Outworld into to."

"Shang Tsung was known to steal the souls of his victims in order to maintain his life essence and youth, but on that night he gained something far greater than just any soul." Raiden added, "but he disappeared. It's thought that he was captured by Kotal Kahn and imprisoned in Outworld, but there's also whispers that the demon's presence can still be felt and is working in the shadows to undermine the work of Kotal Kahn for having chosen the sorcery of Quan Chi over his."

"What does this matter to Sonya?" Stryker pulled them from the history books, he needed relevance, and his stare into the whites of Raiden's eyes demanded an answer.

"It's clear Quan Chi has no intention of hosting a fair tournament. I've seen your fights, Liu Kang was pushed through the ranks with no resistance, much like the rest of you, while others have been defeated with ease."

"He means for us to move forward to the higher rounds." Liu Kang understood, and turned to Kung Lao as the monk stood to address the implication.

"The further in the tournament we reach, the stronger the opponents. The stronger the champion, the more resolve within our souls." Kung Lao added, "Quan Chi is using the tournament to weed out the weak and likely to try and enslave us, kill us, or worse, entrap our souls within this island."

"Not that Shang Tsung was above that level of treachery, but until Quan Chi meddled with the tournament, there were strict rules set in place, honored by the gods and the emperor."

"The emperor must honor them." Nightwolf entered. "If challenged."

"Not necessary." Raiden disappointed him and turned the conversation on its side, back around to the point of Stryker's glare, "we must find Sonya first."

"How?" Jax pressed.

"We look." Raiden's only answer.

Nightwolf nodded, arms folded and eyes always on Liu Kang. Liu noticed and stepped toward him, "then let's split into teams. Stryker and Jax, you two know each other best, take the cliff just up ahead."

"I'll go with Raiden, we know the history and the island better than anyone here. We'll take check the forest, with Raiden, it will not be as dangerous." Kung Lao suggested, Raiden nodded.

"Then it's you and I." Liu returned Nightwolf's stare.

"May our ancestors be with us." The Native nodded and the group broke.

"We'll check the spires, it's the last place she was seen." Liu suggested and eyed Nightwolf as they turned back toward the main temple, the Native nodded and the search was on.


	79. 79 Jax Briggs

Two guards watched as Jax and Stryker broke off from the group. They stood at each side of the large gong just beyond the raised platform where blood stained the stone arena. Beyond that, the empty throne for the host to watch and his noble guests. Behind the platform and seating, the guard walls of the courtyard came to a turn and at the edge a great fissure had cracked open the wall.

Stryker noted that there was an entrance through the raised platform and staircase where the host would enter from, but with little pause, Jax pressed through the opening big enough for him to squeeze through, and easier for Stryker to follow suit. What the guards would make of it, neither cared beyond this point.

This opened up to another stone courtyard with a platform a meter below with a staircase and creases in the stone where the naknada would burn around the gong for added visual during combat. This was to their immediate right, and just ahead, Jax noticed another fissure in the wall where the night fog had begun to roll through.

"There's a door round the corner there, let's try that first." Jax pointed just beyond the turn, almost aligned with the gong.

There wasn't much more to this area as they pushed forward. Each readied to pull their weapons, and each vigilant for any movement, but beyond the gong, the platform lowered with steps another meter to an empty courtyard that overlooked the spires and crags that littered the island.

Through the opening, Jax noticed a small pagoda set by a wooden bridge that looked old and ruined, much like the rest of this area. It was clear this space was not kept up, nor meant to be part of the tournament grounds. Stryker noted it was more likely to be used by the guards and naknada than combatants. It connected further along beyond a gnarled old tree that stretched it's bony fingers out to the night sky where metal sconces on the stone walls lit and guided them further along the side of the temple.

There was a dirt path that lead down to a view of the crags and spires, or they could hug the wall along the paved path that passed a round opening where the grounds appeared to be better kept. This round door entered the main building of the temple, but in one of the rooms unknown to the guests.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Stryker noted and pressed his back to the wall.

The awkward opening didn't leave much room for cover if he were to turn to find a guard, so they hugged the wall and he waited for Jax to ready.

He waited and heard only breath.

He looked over at his partner and followed Jax's line of sight across the bridge to the gazebo.

"That wasn't lit before, was it?" He hadn't paid much attention to it when they crossed the bridge as only the fires that guided them along the wall caught their attention.

It seemed readily apparently they had caught the attention of a cold pair of eyes that stared back at them from the gazebo. The one metal lantern that hung from chain danced slowly above the head of a man dressed in black and yellow clothes.

To Jax, he looked like a ninja, face covered, head hidden within a black hood and breeches that tightened at the ankles and tapered into tabi that moved one after the other onto the bridge.

That chain fell slack from the lantern and it crashed down to the stone rubble beneath and followed the man, his eyes never darted from Jax's.

"You know what?" Jax stepped out from the wall, Stryker slow to follow, cautioned by the glare of the masked man. "Let's do this."

He raced forward, gun quick into his hand and Stryker fast behind him to lean and cover his partner.

Scorpion stepped back and ducked under the first swing, the chain connected to the metal lantern swung with his momentum as he came back. Jax tightened his body against the wooden rail as the chain slapped the deck. One of the planks splintered under his weight and the water rippled beneath them. He stepped on the chain as the lantern scrapped the stone edge where Stryker knelt.

Scorpion dropped the chain and pulled the sword from the hilt on his waist band to put distance between he and Jax. A warning not to step closer, but Jax could see the rope at his hip as well. Scorpion was well equipped at close and long range, but was he equipped for a modern bullet?

Jax was quicker to shoot off a round than Scorpion to raise the sword and swing. The bullet blew through his right eye and yanked is head back. His body staggered, but he didn't move further than a few steps until he had grounded himself into a defensive stance.

Jax stood in place and Stryker watched, ready to join.

The hole where an eye once settled began to cinder and burn like the lantern at Stryker's feet. Scorpion sheathed the sword and reached for the rope at his side. Jax stepped back. The embers burned through the skull of the revenant, but Scorpion was unaffected.

With no words, he chose bullets.

Jax shot again and Stryker joined from behind. The fires from the socket burned brighter and escaped like dragon's breath to encase Scorpion's frame as he faded back. As it dissipated, Jax and Stryker ceased fire and waited for the smoke to clear, but the man was no where to be seen.

Stryker knelt back in position and waited for Jax's signal.

Left, right, no where. Jax turned back toward Stryker across the bridge and staggered as Scorpion kicked the metal lantern into Stryker's face and then swung the rope, tied to a spear, toward Jax.

The spear scraped his flesh, he cursed his large frame, but glad to have dodged. His arm began to bleed out, but the rope was now in his grasp and he tugged on it against Scorpion's strength.

Stryker struggled against the wall, his face marked but he heated metal, his hands guarded his wound, but he could hear the combat burn around him. As Scorpion and Jax struggled with control of the range weapon, he heard foot steps, several, and then a great force yank him from his seated position against the wall.

Jax shot another round at Scorpion, the bullet struck through the revenant's chest, but only fire spat out at him. Scorpion's response was to cut the rope that tethered him to Jax and turn to find himself closed off from the exits by guards and Lin Kuei.

Jax approached, gun raised and one round left.

Scorpion eyed the opposition and turned back around. Stryker had been dragged into the room to their side, where two guards had captured him from Lin Kuei hands.

"Happy Halloween, motherfucker!" Jax readied the gun, stepped one more foot closer and eyed his target.

"Enough." Scorpion dissipated into the flames that consumed his wounds as Sub-Zero broke through the barrier of Lin Kuei.

"Where's my partner?" Jax repositioned the gun toward the assassin.

"In the holding cell here." Sub-Zero parted the way where the two guards held Stryker. "Where you belong."

"Not until you send him over and tell me where fuck Sonya is." Jax pressed closer, inch by inch, but his weapon was trained on the cold eyes of the Lin Kuei leader. "I'm not here for no fucking trick or treat, so you better you better shut up and do as I say."

"What's your name?" Sub-Zero pulled the cloth from his face and let it hang against his chest.

"Only name you need to worry about is Sonya Blade, and where I can find her."

"Lower your weapon, and I'll tell you where she is."

Jax stood in place. He wasn't ready to give the high ground to these freaks, but the air grew cold, and the moment stale as he knew more would close in on him.

"Release him first."

Sub-Zero nodded and the guards allowed Stryker to cross the bridge.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Bi-Han, the Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei." He added, "I see you are strong to take on that revenant bare handed."

"Had a little help." He looked back at Stryker, and kept the gun high.

"We've been looking for him. Name's Scorpion."

"Don't care."

"Shame."

"I'll help you find your partner." Sub-Zero approached the edge of the bridge.

"What's in it for you?" Stryker spat.

"Send the revenant back to the Nether Realm."

"I put two bullets in that thing and it's still fought like nothing happened, you expect me to take that out?"

"Well," Sub-Zero turned his lips up and glanced back at the Lin Kuei then into Jax's eyes, "with a little help."

There was no where to go.

No forward, and as the guards filled in the fissure behind them, there was no going back.

Jax glanced back at Stryker and with a nod, the two agreed to lower their weapons as the man in black and blue closed the distance between he and Jax and sized the man up.

"You're built like a machine." Sub-Zero noted the wound that bleed down Jax's arm.

"I don't care what you think, let's get this over with and find Sonya!" Jax spat and Sub-Zero nodded.

"Sure thing."

The leader of the Lin Kuei reached out a hand, a gesture of good faith in their mutual deals. As Jax took Sub-Zero's hand, he felt the cold flesh creep fast against his own. The sting of winter pierced through him right to the bone.

It wasn't until Stryker's scream as he was captured by the guards did he suddenly realize the hand that had his wasn't just as cold as ice, but had started to freeze his. He pulled away, but the strength of ice that connected him would not separate. He felt the burn of ice rapidly crawl up his arm to the shoulder where only then did Sub-Zero let go.

Jax leaned against the broken rail that splintered further under his added weight. He screamed, the pain too much and the world around him had started to fade as his body would soon succumb to shock.

The last thing he had seen, the last thing he felt was the wood beneath his free arm crawl up his flesh as the ice encased it and the sound of glass shattered around him as the weight crashed through the old wooden planks beneath him.


	80. 80 Sonya Blade

The eternal darkness is the gift given only the moment you feel death slowly settle within the confines of your mind. Though it fades and not truly eternal, there is no greater wonder than that fleeting moment of ethereal bliss.

She would call bullshit. Her ribs ached and her bones clicked as she felt herself move over a hard floor. The darkness was eternal, for her eyes could not see beyond the blackness that surrounded her. The smell was putrid, like rotted flesh and stale breath aged through rusted metal.

"Do you have a light?" A voice, cracking and withered reached out to hear in the darkness.

This jolted her to action and she leaned up and pushed her body backward into what felt like three round poles. Sonya wasn't certain what it had said until a moment later when it clicked and searched down her body for a bump at her side. There was always a gun, and always a flashlight.

The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness would never understand it. The eyes that looked back at her, old and narrowed. Cracked hands broken with age and twisted by disease reached out to shade the old man's face. Sonya lowered the focus of the light away from his eyes and took a better look at the man behind the metal bars across from her.

Carved into the stone, his prison cell wasn't deep. She'd figure about two meters on each side. He sat, unable to move his weary bones, unable to rejuvenate those withered muscles beyond shading from the light.

The man was old, ancient, she'd swear. His beard, white and grey rivers that flowed down to the bars even as he leaned against the back of the cell. His frame was minuscule and he looked more fragile than glass. His voice, though frail, sounded familiar.

"You are so much more gorgeous in person, Sonya Blade." He flirted and tried his best to smile with those thin, dry lips.

"Who are you?" She leaned back against the bars behind her and raised the light enough to see him better, but not to blind him.

"I was once a great sorcerer named Shang Tsung."

The voice rang little bells, but it took a moment for her to recall. His was the voice in her head this whole time.

"You don't look great." He could see the grim reality in her face, knew it was not an insult, but an observation, still he laughed it off through a cough and nodded.

"You're right. I am old, and I am dying." His eyes were dull, but every so often as the light would move, they would shine like a hyena in the night. Green, but a dim light. "I have expelled all but the last of my power to get you here."

She understood what this meant. As he slouched further, his bones shook when he tried to raise himself and she could see the struggle in his eyes as he could not pull himself up with his own weight. Her last memory was not of this darkness, but the ground far below. She would have fallen had he not saved her.

"Thanks," she added, "but where am I?"

"Deep in the ruins of Goro's Lair." A female voice startled her from behind.

Sonya darted to the bars with Shang Tsung behind her and focused the light on two faces that peered back from just behind the rusted metal. Quiet and vigilant they sat as she spoke with the feeble sorcerer.

"What the fuck!" Sonya tried to comprehend the sight before her, but she was unable to grasp the whole picture. Too much all at once. Shang Tsung snickered through a dry whisper as the light shined in the darkness and a hiss returned from jagged teeth.

"I am Kitana," she turned toward her left, "this, my sister Mileena."

Nothing from the face that bared its gruesome maw beneath the eyes that matched the thin woman in torn blue cloth, barely enough to cover herself with.

"Doesn't talk much." Shang Tsung explained of Mileena, "but that was never the plan."

Slowly Sonya pulled herself from the floor and peered the light down the hall. She was buried under the bowels of the island, the tunneled turned and expanded beyond visibility both ways. Other cells were etched, but only served to explain the putrid smell from the corpses and bones that were cast to her by the light.

"How long have you been here?" She asked of them all.

"A long five-hundred years." Kitana returned, her strength better than Shang Tsung's as she pulled herself to stand eye to eye with Sonya.

"Bullshit!"

"My beautiful Sonya, time is not the same in Outworld and Edenia as it is in Earthrealm. What may only survive a hundred years on Earth, can be stretched by thousands in other realms."

"How old are you?" She looked over to Kitana.

"Ten thousand years, child." She responded, then the light turned toward Mileena, who had stood to meet the stranger.

"That's enough talk. I did not bring you here just to chat, my dear." Shang Tsung, unable to pull himself up, reached out to her with his faded breath. "Come."

"I'm guessing you want me to free you?" She cut as many corners in their conversation as she could see even a breath took every toll on his body. "What do I do?"

"I'd caution letting him free." Kitana reached out to her, but Sonya pulled away. "It would be better to let us go instead."

"Why not us all? Sonya, my dear, would be jailed with us if she were caught."

Silence.

"There is no key for this lock. No lock for a key." Shang Tsung spoke as Sonya searched the bars for something to shoot.

"What then?"

"Your blood, Sonya Blade." He smiled and fell against his side and began to cough.

"You going to live to see this gate even open?" Kitana pondered.

"What I hold in me has kept me alive to this point, but it is all I have left. I need more, or–"

He could see Sonya's dilemma play out before her eyes. There was a pocket knife in her shorts to pull out and cut, but would she really want to?

"It is all right." Kitana guided her. "My lock can be broken."

She turned to find it and her hand raised from pocket to gun.

"Let us out and we'll help you." Sonya didn't trust the vile maw beneath the eyes that peered out from the dim light, but she didn't trust the old man either.

"Fuck it." She cut a sliver of flesh from her palm and pressed it against the old bars.

"Excellent." He managed to let out before another spell cast from his lungs against the floor and his body shook from the energy it took just to relieve itself of each hoarse breath.

Her hand wrapped around the bar and a line of red began to slither down the pole. Out of the corner of her eye, stretched to its furthest point in the dim light she saw a shape emerge. A man turned the corner and spotted her.

She looked back at the bars with little change save for the blood that spilled down and then back at the man that charged forward.

The cell would not open. The flashlight fell from her grasp in her desperation and the man raced closer.

"Shit!"


	81. 81 Johnny Cage

His knuckles connected with her wrist, the bruise hidden in the darkness as it expanded from bone to flesh. She pushed back and forced him into the rusted bars behind him and the darkness encompassed them.

Johnny's knee lifted and his boot pressed into her stomach, the bars stiff and ready to assist him to launch Sonya back across the tight hall. At the dim edge of light he could see her feet against the bars and another pair beyond her, locked behind the cell.

He had her, he knew it. The woman Kano sought to destroy, now his target. He raised his fists, ready to fight, ready to strike her as she adjusted into a left stance and advanced with a step drag toward him.

His body knew the moves, and followed the motion, but his neck was stuck at the bars. A slender arm reached around to close in on his throat and hold him in place.

Sonya pulled away as Johnny was forced against the cells. She lifted the flashlight and revealed to him the prisoner Kitana had him in a tight, surprisingly strong grasp.

"Enough, Johnny Cage." She commanded in his ear.

He struggled. When he thought he had her arm off his windpipe, another pair of hands reached out to grab his.

"Don't move!" The woman behind him warned. "She'll bite your arm off."

His eyes locked with Sonya's and hers on his as the light tilted to her right. Kitana released just enough to let him have a painful crook of his neck to get only the slightest glance at the ragged jaws that jaws that hovered under and above his flesh. He could feel the hot breath, the moisture drip, and the hunger that bellowed from the prisoner, but her eyes shined like an animal's in the light. He could not pierce through them to see the human behind them, only the monster that held him.

"Don't!" He begged.

His eyes met Sonya's, then beyond to the broken old man in the cell that glared back at him with the crooked smile. He enjoyed the sight of his suffering, he could see it in those old, withered eyes.

He could feel the breath of another, the soft, but commanding voice of the woman that held him edge her lips close to his ears. Her eyes on Sonya as well.

"Who is she to you?" Kitana asked, her voice a whisper, but echoed deep into him.

"Kano's murderer." He responded, the muscles in his arm tense as the monster held him tighter and the time bomb of her fangs ticked away as they edged closer.

"You're Kano's lackey?" Sonya asked.

Kitana and Shang Tsung shared a glance. Through the light and the darkness, they could see the riddle plague through the space between them. Only one could see an answer to this explosive situation.

"He means to kill you, Sonya Blade." Shang Tsung reached out to her with his voice. "He cannot be trusted now."

"Now, wait a minute!" Johnny pleaded, he knew they had control. If only he could get free. "Let's talk this out."

"You're better than this." Kitana tightened her grip, her arm lower, but his body pressed tighter to the bars.

"Than what?" He tried to look back, to catch her eye with his. "Who even are you, lady?"

"This isn't who you are, Johnny." She responded, but not to his question. "Either of you."

"I know who I am." Sonya spat.

"Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, together again at last. What a sight to behold," Shang Tsung added, "but our time is running out. Let them fight, Kitana, he is not the same person you knew."

She glared back through the darkness, into the eyes of the sorcerer she knew stared back. Sonya tightened her stance, the flashlight readied as her only weapon against him should he be freed.

Kitana leaned into him, her lips against his ear, and whispered only to him, "what has Quan Chi offered you?"

He stood still. His body unable to move as the threat of dismemberment crept up the smooth curves of his arm and the eyes of the woman across from him, cold, apathetic toward his fate stared on and waited for the response.

In that moment he couldn't remember. He wasn't sure if it was even a real moment. Had any of this been?

He wasn't sure what he wanted, nor if any offer would be worth the prize of his destruction at the hands of the grotesque woman that threatened to devour him, and the other ready to choke him into the rust of the their own prison cells.

"The Black Dragon." He let out in a weak breath, but Kitana only choked him harder.

"Anyone with a dick the size of a pea could run the Black Dragon, what does Quan Chi have on you, the famous actor Johnny Cage." She hissed into his ear and the words struck him like lightning.

"How do you know me?" He tried to turn, but she kept him locked in place.

"I am Kitana, Edenian Royality, former Kahnum of Outworld, former deity of the realms, of course I know you." She added, "Quan Chi, whatever he is promising is a lie."

"With the death of Kano," he played devil's advocate, "I have been given the Black Dragon. Then after becoming champion of Mortal Kombat, I will have the power, fame and fortune he promised."

"No man or woman alive has ever become champion of Mortal Kombat since Quan Chi perverted the tournament."

She felt his pulse in his neck, the fear in him rise as he spoke, "he'll kill me if I turn on him." He paused, she let go for a moment so he could turn toward her finally, his arms freed. "I have no power here."

She took a hard look at him. This was not the Johnny Cage she knew. Lines wore across him of trouble rather than arrogance. He had killed to survive before having ever stepped foot on this island. She could see the fear in him, not of death, but of himself.

Kitana reached out with a hand, cold, but gentle and touched his cheek. A soft caress down to his chin where she leaned him to get a better look, so he could look better at her as well.

"He's done this to you, Johnny." She brought him closer, the glisten of her eyes pale in the flashlight's dim aura. "Let me go, and I will save you."

"They'll find out." He hesitated and pulled back.

"Chances are," Shang Tsung chimed in, "he already knows."

"I know you." She took his eyes again, "I know what you can become. Just listen to me, just this once."

Sonya watched as the two stood in a long dark pause. As the air stiffened and grew stale in the heat of their breath, a click echoed through the dark, rusted hall and the cage door slowly tilted outward.

"There are guards in the tunnels." He warned her.

"There's more than that." Shang Tsung added.

"I know these tunnels better than anyone." Kitana stared back at Shang Tsung, of whom could not escape with them.

"Beg to differ, Princess."

Free from their confines, Kitana looked down the hewn stone halls of the cells that once lead to great fire and death traps that could kill any foolish adventurer. She turned to Sonya, a nod, then to Johnny.

"Take Sonya with you, it will look good to have caught her trying to escape." She suggested, though Sonya did not appreciate the gesture. "Quan Chi will not kill you."

Unsure about such assurances, Sonya looked to Shang Tsung who nodded. Mileena, who anywhere other than her jaw looked like the perfect replica of Kitana climbed from her cell for the first time in far too many years to count. She stretched, just Kitana did, and closed the door behind them.

"I owe you, Johnny Cage." Kitana smiled and took Mileena by the hand to escape into the shadows of the tunnels.


	82. 82 Jax Briggs

"No one understands my vision."

A voice echoed into the chambers of Jax's ears. A solitary tone that rocked the flesh that wrinkled and squirmed inside his skull until his eyes twitched and the world, dark, dim, and grey came back to him.

The air was cold, the taste that soaked his tongue from the dry carapace of life was metallic and yet sterile. He scraped it from the hills of his tongue and turned his gaze from the old wood above his head to the the white coats, aliens to him, that quickly moved off into the distance.

"No one." The voice continued, "not even the Lin Kuei."

His head tilted back to find the man, though unmasked, that had cornered him. He looked of Chinese origin, but he couldn't really tell. The man hovered over him and peeled away black latex gloves that stretched and squeezed before being slapped free and stuck to a pair of hands that awaited them. Hands attached to white coats, beings that moved further back as his focus returned to him and he could see these were men and women, caucasian, similar to the Black Dragon, but much more cleanly and methodical.

"Major Briggs." The man known as Sub-Zero sat beside him and stared. "Welcome back."

"How long have I been out?" Jax tried to move his arms, but only the phantom of movement tightened his chest muscles and shoulders. He arms were still like weights against the metal table he lay on.

"The process is incomplete, not like with Cyrax and Sektor."

He couldn't understand the words, the intent, the nuance, the connotation, whatever the hell he meant. Jax tried to lift himself off, but his chest was bound, and his arms were still. He couldn't move them.

"I want to tell you something, and maybe you'll understand." Sub-Zero leaned closer.

"What the fu–"

Sub-Zero spoke over him, "my people are from a realm known as Edenia. It was a beautiful realm, but divided." He added, "there was a power in Edenia, nobility, royalty, oligarchs. They ruled the realm with an iron fist."

"Man, I don't really give a damn, just get me off this–" Sub-Zero pressed on as Jax failed to intervene.

"Perhaps you're not interested in history, but you're about to make it." Sub-Zero relinquished the lesson to the cold air and stood to look down over the masterpiece he had created.

Cold fingers traces cold steel Jax could not feel, but all the same somehow could, as though a phantom had reached out to him.

"I'll be honest, I would have liked to preserve as much of you as possible, but the ice did more damage than I had intended with you." Sub-Zero traced the cold steel down to metal locks that held Jax down and the officer heard two loud knocks and clicks before he feel himself move again.

"What did you do?" He looked beyond his bulk to find metal covered his arms and as he pulled himself up with ease on the cold medical table, he realized it wasn't a covering, this foreign steel was his arms.

"It's not finished." Sub-Zero apologized, "my dream of fully automating the human race is far from realization, and the capabilities of this pathetic island was not enough to grant you what we've done to others, but it's a start Jackson Briggs."

He couldn't scan the thin, clean lines that traced where flesh and metal meet at his shoulders. No mirror to fully realize the image he had become of another man's cruel dream. He could feel his arms, but only as phantoms, not as flesh and blood. The mass that protruded as his new extensions pulsed electrical energy at his shoulders and traced like flesh around his upper back, like a brace that connected them.

He had seen officers that had been forced into amputation from injuries on the field, and in the military where you went home with scars on flesh and in mind, but to be violated burned in his chest and he couldn't process any thoughts beyond the ultra violent.

"You mother fu–" He lunged for the leader of the Lin Kuei, but the man was quicker, his form left behind a frosted figure that burned across Jax's flesh like cold steel.

"You'll come around." The man stared back, having already cleared the distance between Jax and the door out. "You'll understand my vision soon enough. They all will."

The door slammed. The room vacated of all life but Jax. In this moment more than ever he could truly feel how less of a man he was.


	83. 83 Liu Kang

The morning fog, the dense air that rolled over the crags and hills of the island terrain like a thick finger that pressed and wiped clean the surface with sweat and disregard sank down on Liu Kang's chest. He let out a thick wet breath and watched as the Naknada lined up on the beach before him and Quan Chi.

Beside him stood Raiden and Stryker on his left, Nightwolf on his right. Just beyond that line of robed monstrosities the bone thin figure of a sorcerer painted in black and white stared through the cracks and crevices of the lines between.

"Where is Sonya?" Raiden demanded answer, but only an ugly pause followed.

"You have no right to hold a challenger hostage. The rules of Mortal Kombat prohibit it." Kung Lao added, joined behind Raiden.

"The laws of Mortal Kombat no longer matter." Quan Chi's voice travelled like a deep rumble through the soggy air. For a frail sorcerer his voice was strong, just as his vile resolve. "I sought to that many years ago, Lord Raiden."

"Without Elder Gods you can do as you please, but I doubt Kotal Kahn would be pleased with you disrespecting his crown by spitting on this ancient custom so deep in the culture of Outworld and his people." Raiden spat.

"The rules are as I desire them." They couldn't see as he gestured for the line of Naknada to reveal himself to Raiden's group. Beside him stood Johnny Cage, and below him on her knees, Sonya's eyes crossed the sand to Liu Kang and the Thunder God.

Liu Kang stepped forward. Raiden turned his eyes to him, but no one moved with him. Nightwolf cast a dagger into the eyes of the Thunder God. A word between the two never spoken as the deserter of the White Lotus Clan halved the distance between himself and the sorcerer.

"I challenge you then, to Mortal Kombat."

Quan Chi shared this cold stare with Liu, a depth only the two could know, but then cut quick and with clear disregard as he turned toward Johnny Cage and pushed the actor forward.

"You will instead fight the Ninja Mime himself."

"You must accept the challenge." Raiden called out.

"You must feel so pathetic without all of your power, Keeper of Time." Quan Chi cut a crease in Raiden's mind that clung to a whole new horror that the sorcerer knew far more than they had ever imagined.

"If you will not accept the challenge, then I will still fight you." Liu Kang added.

"Johnny Cage has betrayed me." He turned to the actor, "I have torn you down from man to this shell before me and even still you betrayed me."

"What do you mean?" Cage couldn't see how he could have known. From the prisoners? From Shang Tsung? No.

"I only needed you for one thing, Johnny Cage, and I got it." Quan Chi added, a crack of a smile at his lips, "your future. Which now rests inside Sonya."

"You know what," Cage pushed over him, that deep voice pressed against with the vitriol of his, "everyone here talks too much."

He swung for Quan Chi with a fast right hook.

"Fuck it!" Stryker joined, a gun in hand before Raiden could push him back.

Before Liu Kang could close the gap, Nightwolf was ahead of him with the Naknada that charged in them in a circular formation. He followed Quan Chi close and bolted between the two monsters to reach him as he slid back from the fray.

Cage pushed Sonya down as a sword cast down for her from the six armed creature and threw his shoulder into the beast's chest. It reached for him as he dropped down to a knee only to find itself with its crotch in hand as the next strike doubled the creature over it's most tender of sections. Cage's old smile glistened, even for a moment as he enjoyed this quick second of being who he used to be. That second removed as quickly as it came as two large hands clenched over the thick meat of his shoulders and dragged him back against the coarse beach sand.

He watched through the carnage before forced to deal with the Naknada over him that Liu Kang had begun to fight Quan Chi, Raiden at his side and Stryker kneeled before him, barrel aimed to blow the skull of the creature over the two.

"Break the rules, and you will pay the price, Thunder God." Quan Chi was quick to dodge each strike, his strategy was to evade, his fragile form paled in comparison to Liu Kang.

"Consider this your punishment then." Nightwolf managed to grab the sorcerer, and forced him around. "A taste of things to come for your leader!"

Nightwolf created a wide gap between the two, this distance closed by a wolf formed of green light that leapt toward the sorcerer. Quan Chi buckled to his knees and allowed his own energy to meet the creature that gnawed for him. A shield of skulls that formed across his flesh and pressed back against the wolf.

Surrounded but not alone, Quan Chi had the Naknada to pull him from Raiden, Nightwolf and Liu Kang, but Kung Lao rushed in to meet him, and when he was engaged in combat with two beasts, Johnny Cage, Sonya, and Stryker were already there to flank him.

Stryker blew away the two beasts that pulled Quan Chi with them and the cold steel eye glared down into the pupil's of the sorcerer.

His finger pressed the trigger, the steel clicked and hissed and roared toward the sorcerer. Just enough time to blink before he saw the bullet catch inside of the chest of the specter Scorpion. Stryker clicked the trigger again, but the man before him absorbed the steel.

Quan Chi appeared behind the Lieutenant, that fragile appearance merely the cover of a tome he could not fathom the depth of its pages. Quan Chi's eyes lit with a green energy.

Stryker glanced down. Like the sea around the, the and began to ripple and the great kraken of a skeleton grew from the grains sand into a monstrosity that opened its maw wide enough to swallow the man.

"That is enough, Quan Chi!" A voice shattered the skeleton into fragments of light that cast back into the sand like light through a prism, no longer uniform.

All eyes turned as the Lin Kuei and the Black Dragon had finally raced from the spires to the scene of this chaotic battle only to be held back by the force of a shadow that formed a great wall around the rogue combatants.

One after the other a figure would emerge at each side of Kotal Kahn. First, a beautiful, cold eyed female drenched in blood red clothing of Soviet design that stood at Kotal's right, then a male in purple, Edenian with his smooth curves and veiled face. Scattered amongst them, two other females in black and grey and symbols Quan Chi recognized as the markings of the Brotherhood of Shadow. The last of them to emerge, a near mummified creature wrapped in cloth and adorned in red and black leather attire shredded and ancient, his eyes appeared to change almost infinitely as though the souls of millions stared back at all that gazed upon this being. He was many, and in this moment, even Quan Chi felt as small as one.


	84. 84 Raiden

They clawed for solid ground, pooled around each other like they had known each other for so long, and in a moment would have to let go. Bundled like survivors out in the cold, Raiden's snowcap conical hat tilted down as he pondered their next move. All eyes on him, Liu Kang at his right, Kung Lao to his left. Nightwolf stood across from the Thunder God, but his eyes were on Liu Kang.

As the air in the stone hewn chamber meant for the earth realmers to sleep in, not congregate in such numbers, the air thickened and staled with each breath. Liu could inhale the cold intentions behind Nightwolf's eyes and as his chest rose to fill his lungs with that thick, ugly air, he couldn't stand it any longer and finally let it go.

"What is it?" Liu cast a glare back, but held back any cold words he felt peer beyond the valleys of his maw.

All eyes on Nightwolf.

"You are not who you think you are." He responded, eyes never strayed.

"I'm pretty sure I know who I am, and I don't need someone else to tell me." Liu spat.

"Your spirit is torn in half."

Raiden raised the brim of his at and looked deep into Liu's flesh, his eyes, the window to his soul.

"Fascinating." He pondered just above his breath. "How did I not see this?"

"You're too close to him, to all of them." Nightwolf gazed around until Johnny Cage stepped forward.

"Who the hell are any of you?" He added, "I brought this chick back to you out of the kindness of my heart and instead of getting off this island, we're what, going to talk and drink beer?"

"Chick?" Sonya narrowed her sights, Stryker beside her and visibly uncomfortable with the idea Jax wasn't.

"Out of the kindness of your heart? You who runs with Kano and the Black Dragon?" Stryker spat.

"A minion of Quan Chi and Kotal Kahn." Kung Lao added to the pile of shame.

"I'm just–" Johnny was cut off by Raiden

"A pawn in this game Quan Chi is playing with all of us." He continued, "he did not mean to respect this ancient custom of Mortal Kombat, but to weed us out and snuff out the defenders Earth Realm."

"Not Earth Realm." Nightwolf injected a different perspective, "competition."

"Okay, who the fuck is this guy? Do you need to go back to the reservation?" Johnny stepped forward, Nightwolf met him.

"Racism is not an appropriate response to ignorance, Ninja Mime." Kung Lao cut the distance between them and interjected himself between the two.

Johnny stepped back, his shoulders pressed against the thick wood door and the knock pressed at his ribs.

Raiden could taste the tension in the room, the static electricity that built between them all. One thing at a time, he felt, and turned to Liu Kang.

"He is right, your spirit has been torn in two, and you are not wholly you." He tried to explain, but in his head, pondered when it was that Liu Kang had done this. Was it on the table, dying beneath Kitana before Outworld fell to Kotal Kahn, or before then?

"How could that be? I've been this way for all of my life." Liu Kang couldn't understand.

"This life." Raiden's breath betrayed him, but the words had not been caught and fell flat upon the floor. This reminded him of that brittle, shattered moment when Quan Chi had referred to him as the keeper of time.

_How could he know?_

"Cage, tell me how this all happened?" Raiden singled out Johnny and allowed only the two of them to speak.

"How far back we talking?" Cage was clueless. Time was infinite and this man wished to pick a moment out of a hat?

"From when you found Sonya to the battle on the beach." Raiden urged him forward.

He eyed the blonde across from him, "I was hunting her, but also looking for something else in the underground cells."

"What were you looking for?"

"I don't really remember, but I found the chick here and we had a long chat."

"I kicked his ass." She added.

"She kicked my ass." He admitted, but continued, "but I realized I'd been strung along this entire time by Quan Chi, I just, I don't know, felt like maybe there was just something I needed to do."

"What did he offer you?" Raiden pondered, but he knew Quan Chi's usual pandering.

"Money, fame, women, the entirety of the Black Dragon, you name it."

"Shit, and you turned that down?" Stryker pondered.

"No." Cage snickered, "I realized this entire time I've been turning myself down. This strange thought just crept into my head that all of this should be different. Can't explain it."

"He was held against his will to let two prisoners go." Sonya deduced his feelings to the actions that had transpired.

"Two prisoners?" Raiden turned away from Cage to Sonya.

"I don't remember their names, but they looked kind of alike. It was dark." She couldn't fill the gaps within the shadows of her mind.

"Quan Chi kept saying he needed me for something, and her." Cage pressed. "So I brought her before him and he said you'd do anything to get her back." He tried to imitate the depth and smug tone of Quan Chi as he added, "Raiden is weak for mortals."

"Like Gandalf with the Hobbits?" Stryker tried to understand.

Cage shrugged.

Raiden turned from them all, his back to the group, his eyes cast out through the smallest slit of a window that overlooked the volcanic ridges of the island, he knew what Quan Chi wanted out of Sonya and Johnny, and by now, he would have had planted the seed to obtain it.

"We won't let him succeed." He turned back to them, "we'll play the game of Mortal Kombat for now as Kotal Kahn will not break the rules. We can't let Quan Chi off this island. Not alive at least."

"And Jax?" Sonya interjected.

"I know where he is." Cage added.

"Take me to him." She pressed forward with Stryker, but Raiden blocked their path toward the door.

"Not yet." He assured her, "we will not leave this island without him, but now is not the time to rush in guns blazing, Sonya Blade, Kurtis Stryker."

"When is?" She would push through him if she could.

"You'll know." He then addressed the group. "Until then, Quan Chi will find some way to single us all out and extinguish us one by one before the tournament even ends. He means to eradicate all opposition, to what end I don't know, but this is no longer a tournament to celebrate life, but our struggle to stay alive."

"What about Kotal Kahn's forces?" Kung Lao pondered, the very real threat of forces of Outworld that had no desire to hold to any standard Raiden expected of the tournament was a real threat that now loomed over his head.

"Two assassins from the Brotherhood of Shadow, the Prince of Edenia, the entity known as Ermac, and bloodthirsty right hand of Kotal Kahn himself, Skarlet. They are here to play the game, and expect to win it."

"Kotal Kahn himself will stop at nothing to get what he desires most." Nightwolf assured, he knew the lengths the ruler of Outworld would go, and what he desired, but no man that stared before him, save Raiden himself, could see the need for revenge in Nightwolf, nor the path he would choose should he must make a decision between them and annihilating the Kahn.

"All things in due time." Raiden eclipsed them with his words.


	85. 85 Mileena

The red haze of the sun peeked through the cracks and crevices of the dense forest to peer into the eyes of the creature that stood, exposed, and lost on the island.

Kitana grabbed Mileena's right arm and pressed her forward to march on. With what little left they had, they had to press on and Mileena had to trust her sister in blood.

"There's a way in up ahead." Kitana assured her, and kept her feet one ahead of the other.

Mileena kept silent.

The jungle was thicker than the spires, and had more twists and turns than the caverns that held them prisoner. Arms twisted around her and fingers of vines and bark slapped at her bare flesh and tugged on her tattered hair. Kitana kept a hand on her, as if to let go meant to lose one another, and Mileena believed if she did let go, she just might get lost in this horrid foliage.

They already bared the scrapes and caked on blood from their climb out of the ground floor long beneath the teetered bridge that looked down toward a see of jagged spires that grew with layers of skeletons.

She felt the teeth of vegetation rake and taste her flesh, the pale nude form of this torn female a delight to the carnivorous forest, but she scraped and tugged and pushed forward with Kitana to escape it all as best she could until her body pressed into her sister's with a soft thud.

"Here?" Mileena searched for an answer as to why they stopped.

"Here." Kitana let go of her arm and moved into a small earthy clearing with a round metallic seal at the center.

"What is here?" Mileena moved to inspect it, but Kitana insisted they remain distant of it.

"The grave of the Kytinn." Kitana could see that Mileena did not understand. "An ancient race made extinct by Quan Chi and Shang Tsung."

"Like us?"

"Not yet." Kitana surveyed around them, the trees and vines seemed to close in on them, but they held their distance from the seal in the ground. Even the forest dared now disturb this dead.

Mileena's body shivered with an eerie feeling that they had been followed, watched, and even now scrutinized by some other being than the forest. She looked for it even as Kitana, oblivious approached the seal of the Kytinn.

"Something here." She vocalized, harsh, and not as eloquent or elegant as Kitana, but her sister had taught her well enough over the course of five hundred years.

The Edenian Princess stopped and waited in an ugly pause that held her over the seal like the dead could reach out and drag her in, but the threat of the forest was just as great.

Kitana looked back as she heard Mileena take in a deep breath of hair through her jagged maw, but her sister's mouth was closed. The hiss now echoed from the forest.

"Reveal yourself!" She demanded.

The two stood and felt even the forest glare at them, smug and sinister. The vegetation seemed to ruffle in laughter at them, but before Kitana could step away from the seal, a break in the tree line caught her eye and she lunged for it.

"Syzoth!" She held the reptilian against the hard bark and peered deep into those narrow pupils.

"Goddess Kitana." He responded.

She had no weapon, he was his own weapon, and she could not hold him for long.

Kitana let go.

"I've relinquished that power." She stepped back, and he held still like the air around them.

"I have served you still." Reptile bowed.

"Rise you up, Syzoth, I am only Kitana now."

"A name means more to me still." He rose with her command, and glared over toward the ill made copy. "Shang Tsung's flesh golem."

"She has a name. Mileena."

It may not have interested him, but it didn't go over his head that the two woman were naked before him, what little clothing they had was old and tattered and hid none of the scrapes, bruises, and blood they earned to reach this forest.

"I will seek new clothes for you."

"That would be nice." Kitana grinned, amused at the cold nature of the creature before them, what little interest he had, but knew full well the foul beast Reptile could be toward his enemies. "First thing's first though."

"You wish to defile the grave of D'Vorah?" He too refused to approach. "The killer of all things?"

"No, but it's the only way to find what we need to get out of here." Kitana approached the seal and knelt before it, braver than Reptile, who still kept his distance.

"We can't lift it, not in the condition we're in." Kitana insisted he approach, and slowly he did. For her.

"What in there lies for you?" He pondered, unable to grasp her intentions, what ever image burned in her mind could not smoke out from her eyes and let his senses bath in to understand. He could not grasp beyond his reptilian brain her human desires.

"Something I've lost a long time ago, that will begin to make things right."

"What things?" Mileena asked, she approached as well, but felt as clueless as Reptile.

"We'll have to get in to find out." Kitana took one side, Mileena the other, and Reptile joined to lift the seal.

An old stale breath coughed from the Earth into darkened night around them. Mileena recoiled her finger tips from the edge of the seal, just in time for Kitana and Reptile to slide it far enough to leave a gap for the two to enter one by one.

"There is another way." Reptile held himself over the blackened maw of the dead and gazed deep into her eyes, he would not let her go quietly into this foul night without a fight.

"Not for me." Kitana pushed through and delved into the abyss.

An ugly pause held Reptile's breath in as his eyes peered into the emptiness that had devoured the Edenian, and then he turned toward Mileena, equally unsure, but entirely powerless to deny her sister their freedom.

"Go." He assured her. "Do not make the Goddess wait."

"Right." Mileena nodded, stared back down that black eye and with what strength she had left, Reptile pushed her in without hesitation.

He didn't wait for a response.

The tomb was sealed with the two within.

The only ones that could see them now, were the pale eyes of the dead.


	86. 86 Skarlet

How do you know anyone? The holes in their eyes build a mystery that could never be dug out of yours. Hers locked into his he moved inside of her. His scanned her flesh, flush with blood beneath him, but she tried to keep hold of him, his eyes, piece that puzzle together.

"Stay with me." She took his cheeks in hand and leaned in to kiss, but he leaned back from her touch and continued to move into her.

Skarlet moved him back, hands tight on his face and her eyes narrowed on Rain's. He pulled their bodies up tighter to lock her legs and his hands held her wrists down.

"Stop it." He demanded.

She focused then on the light that spied on them from the large opening in their chamber, the open air panted inside to cool them down as her blood rushed to meet his. When his hands let go, she returned them to him, to the chest, to feel the heart of this individual she's known closely for hundreds of years, he removed them and grabbed her chin like a claw that dug into her flesh and pushed her head back into the thin layer of cushion.

"Enough, Skarlet." He scraped his hand across her face to dig her in, then let them roam down to her neck.

She could bleed him, cut his throat, cut herself and use that to strike him, even just slightly, but she wouldn't. He had a temper, but she knew he was off this night, something had happened, but she couldn't unravel that mystery. She let his aggression find her flesh as its scapegoat and her jaw stretched out the bruises that colored her.

"Why are you so pissed?" Her question was met with a tighter grip and he watched her eyes on him as he squeezed.

No words. Just the sensation of her lungs scrounging for air through the crumbled cavern of her throat and his focus of his blood that punished her body from within. This wasn't the usual rough and tumble, he didn't enjoy her beneath him, only the sensation he gave himself through this assortment of flesh and blood.

When her breath became a whisper, he slapped it from her face and watched the blood meet the surface of her skin to please him.

"Get off of me." She pushed.

Rain obliged.

She watched him, his mannerisms the usual as she knew him, but something was off. Something was different and she had loved so much to ignore the creeping of this new wave of emotions and social distancing he had begun, but as she remembered those moments, those red flags, she let them go, because that's what you do when you love someone. You don't let them go, you let the problems float away instead.

She cracked her neck, pulled herself from the bed to dress and kept her back toward him, her front to the door and the torch lit upon the wall.

"This about the Jarrod Accords?"

No response from the shadow at the edge of the bed.

"Whatever it is, don't take it out on me again." She looked back, his eyes to the spires outside. "You hear me?"

"No." He responded after a long, ugly pause.

"Tell me, Rain."

Nothing.

She resigned herself to getting dressed. The soviet clothing tight and matched her well, but she felt her skin crawl beneath the attire as this man that once confessed his love of her refusing to speak another word about himself.

"We'll kill Raiden and his wacky pals." She approached once the last lace of her boot had been secured. "One by one until there is nothing left."

"I don't care about the tournament."

"Do you care about me?"

He leaned in a glance, a hidden smile she decided was a yes, and he turned.

"It's been an interesting few days." He added, "been thinking about my place in all this."

"Our place." She continued, "King of Edenia, and the Blood Mage of Outworld as your Queen."

"Yes, of Outworld, not Edenia."

"Where you're from means nothing when you have power, when you have blood."

"You're right." he approached, slow, and rested a head above her breast between the second and third rib to feel the blood fill her heart. "I can feel yours. Hot, broken, begging to be whole again."

"You've made me whole." She confessed.

"I fill your holes." A jest.

"That too," uncertainty of how to answer that, no words came to her as he pulled away and reached for the door. "You'll kill King Jarrod. Even if we have to go through Kotal Kahn to do it."

He paused. If there was a crack in the mind from the window of your soul that could etch the answers to the universe within, she felt she had found just a sliver of one.

"You would betray Kotal Kahn for me?"

"I would kill him for you, Rain. For us."

She searched for approval in those eyes. She saw the light shin in the darkness and for a moment felt as though darkness could understand it. The door creaked open, a thin birth thrown wider and before he could leave, adorned in simple tunic and pants, slip on boots and no telltale signs of his nobility, nor power, he turned toward this woman he had taken in so long ago.

"Looking forward to it."

Her eyes closed with the door. The pulse of her heart inked her flesh faster with the bruises he had beaten into her. Less than normal, but she knew he would stop any time she told him to. He wasn't Shao Kahn.

Not yet.


	87. 87 Mileena

Darkness is not just a void, but a state of being. It becomes us, dictates who we are, and when are consumed by it we are riddled to nothing. What flicker of light she found, Mileena could barely see and she knew her sister could see far less. Tarkatan's had low-light vision, but this was close to none.

"Where are we?" She let creep into the darkness, with the only response being Kitana's hand in her. A soft hush followed and she was forced to let this more beautiful form of her lead her into the true unknown of the pitch black void.

If her mind could tell time in the emptiness of nothing she would think it had been hours before a solitary stream of moonlight reached into the abyss with curiosity. her eyes adjusted enough to see more tiny cracks of light that followed her as they passed. Stones, boulders, bodies even all piled to create a barrier to keep the light out, or perhaps the darkness from a bold escape.

"Kitana." She pulled away and moved closer to this barrier. The closer she did the better she used that low-light to see their surroundings.

"What is it?"

Her bare feet crunched over the bodies of what she thought were skeletons like theirs might be, but upon further inspection were the burnt and broken carapace of massive insects. Spiders, insectoids the shapes of humans and some with exoskeletons nearly burned off from what should have been the mush that was held within, now just hollow and dust.

"Who did this?" She couldn't fathom who could have such power.

"Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, the deadly alliance." Kitana answered, but added, "a necessary evil though."

"Why is that?"

A cackle stunned Mileena. Kitana turned to face the darkness as a the sound of stones crackling like a fire down the crevices and corpses of the Kytinn chambers echoed all around them, but dim like a dull whisper.

"There's a reason Quan Chi sealed the dead in." She grasped her sister and with quicker steps pushed back into the void of the caverns.

Their hands met jagged spikes against the wall, and burnt corpses that prickled with hairs still left on them where the magical fires hadn't quite singed fully and as this lead them down a winded wall of torturous sensations and turns through a cavern of otherwise nothingness, Mileena began to feel as though they would never escape, or never again see the light, nor even one another.

She couldn't tell if her vision was going bad, because she none. Kitana couldn't tell her not to slip on the skull of an insectoid for neither could feel it until the bumped, scraped, and tripped. It was only until the light grew down the end of the thin wiry tunnel that seemed to burrow deep into the earth of this mystical island that she was relieved to see the hand in hers again.

"Can you see it?" Mileena called out to the darkness, even as Kitana was right to her. "A torch."

In the dim light where the smaller rocks had broken through to let the moon peer into the abyss of a forbidden realm, she noticed it too. Just up ahead they managed to scavenge a relic of the light, but with no means to light it, there was no use to cherish such a gift.

As if the gods had answered them, a bright flash of luminous energy crackled with electricity before them. As the light dimmed to just two white eyes that peered through thatching, Kitana hid herself from it, from him.

"Raiden." She recognized that particular light.

"Princess Kitana." he acknowledged her, but soon turned away after a quick throw of clothing to their feet. "Reptile serves you well."

"He's foolish." She came back to that thought as she found herself able to get fully clothed with his findings, "and I appreciate that."

"You've met this timeline's Johnny Cage and Sonya, I hear."

"What happened to Cage?"

"Quan Chi got to him first."

"How could he?"

"We're in the right place to find the answer."

Mileena listened to their interaction, her eyes captivated by the Thunder God. How could he find them so fast with such dim light able to break through? She didn't fully grasp the idea of him being a higher power, but his voice did carry deeper through the caverns than Kitana's. The cackling in the darkness responded as well.

The half-blood sister of Kitana appreciated the luminous presence of Raiden, if only to ensure they could see the ground or corpse in front of them as they moved. The tunnels turned and twisted and contorted, the three forced to climb, to crawl, and squeeze as they passed the hardened corpse of a Kytinn brood mother.

The last hurdle, a long climb over a deep crevice that looked down into an abyss neither Raiden nor Mileena could see to the bottom of.

"Here?" She looked over toward her sister.

"Yes." Kitana shuffled from her knees to sit over the side of the pit. "Raiden, can you go down safely?"

"My powers are muted here, but I can still teleport some distance." He shifted as well to hang over the ledge and in a flash of energy dissipated downward.

"How deep do you think?" Mileena pondered, and before Kitana could respond, that crackle of electricity grasped their feet and pulled them down into nothingness.

"It's not so deep." Raiden illuminated the tight square space they now filled almost completely. "Look, Kitana."

Beneath their feet were glass shards that glistened in the electrical energy of the Thunder God. Pieces of gold metal and silver also scattered around them. Pale gold, seamless glasswork, perfect even when shattered.

"One of Kronika's spheres?" Kitana was horrified and the whites of Raiden's eyes matched her shock. "What could this mean?"

"It means Quan Chi knows too much." Raiden tried to ponder just how much, but with this time piece shattered, there was no telling.

"This must be why the Kytinn were eradicated." She added.

"Sealed in with their secrets. Exactly why." He concurred.

"What happens now?" They turned toward Mileena, she had survived Kotal Kahn's rise to power only through imprisonment with Kitana. She only remembered the green spirit that lied and cheated her.

"Can you take us to the spires?" Kitana knew where to go.

"What's are you planning to do?" He hadn't quite caught on.

"Talk to our favorite actor." She revealed and he nodded.


	88. 88 Rain

"Are we boring you?"

Rain lifted his head, the heavy weight of his skull over his tired shoulders cracked at the neck and tilted back as his eyes speared through Quan Chi at the head of the table in dining hall of Goro's former lair.

"You like to talk, and I know a lot of talking is going to be done here tonight, but I'm getting tired of waiting, tired of talking." Rain responded, arms folded, and all eyes on him.

"I agree." Quan Chi added, "however, meticulous planning has brought us to this point. You don't just take a face from the aging gallery and walk on down the hall, Rain."

"The is the end, of our elaborate plans." Rain pressed a finger to the ancient wood of the table and eyed Quan Chi as heated as he received. "While we toil away until you've had your fun with the Earth Realmers, Jarrod remains King of Edenia, and Kotal Kahn continues to throw my future queen in peril for his own selfish ends. I want action. I want results."

"Sindel and Kıtana gone, it's true, you could take it from Jarrod, but that would pit you against Kotal Kahn and his best lackeys Skarlet and Reiko." The sorcerer indulged the Edenian, but the others became visibly irked by the length of this conversation, the sole focus being the whining of a would be King.

"Edenia is useless. Ancient temples and lands of nothing. Should have been taken by Shao Kahn long ago." Sub-Zero put his own plan on the table as he spoke up, "the Cyber Initiative will pave the way for a new future on Earth Realm, if not all the realms. Sektor and Cyrax have succeeded in becoming fully automatized, and Jax will soon follow, among the rest of the Lin Kuei."

"What does that do for me?" Quan Chi pressed.

"Keeps Raiden and his warriors busy while I pave the way for a better tomorrow, for a brighter and cleaner Earth. Your next move will be executed with barely an inconvenience." Sub Zero smirked, eyed Rain, the wannabe-king and could see the fire in those eyes, much like those of Scorpion that stood to Quan Chi's right side.

"Assuming they get off this island." Kia added, "the Brotherhood of Shadow is dedicated to this plan, Quan Chi."

"What about me?" Rain tossed to her, a spark between them.

"Your bitch is the reason Jataaka is dead at the hands of Raiden. Tanya would not be pleased to see me help you any further." Her sharp tongue cut, but her words, though bitter, seemed playful and he grinned at the idea of Tanya being cast into the fires of rage over him becoming ruler of Edenia.

"Hardly reason enough. Jataaka was rash, not like you, not like Tanya. Not like Skarlet." He cast it back at her.

"Raiden doesn't leave this island." Quan Chi cut the banter, broke the tension, and his eyes scanned the others as he continued, "I have seen visions of what is to come, and he will stop at nothing to see all of what you have worked for come to a bleeding end. I know the future, I know how it must end."

"As I killed the great Shokan Goro, I will kill Raiden for you." Kia stood.

"Enough pandering," Sub-Zero mocked, "what is the future, and how does it end?"

"I have seen only to a point, but Raiden has been systematically cutting off all that would have destroyed Earth Realm. Shao Kahn, Onaga, now he seeks to use this tournament to kill us all in one fell swoop."

"Didn't answer his question." Rain cut in.

"Time as we know it would end." Quan Chi spat, "you selfish child, all you care about is yourself and your ends, but have you thought of what happens when one of them gains control of time itself?"

"What do you mean?" Kia was latched, unable to fathom this.

"This is not the first roll of the dice for the Thunder God. He has somehow defeated a titan to become a keeper of time. Which means he can alter it to his liking." Quan Chi explained.

"So, you're telling us the world sucks because some random God made a wish?" Sub-Zero pondered.

"A wish is a dream your heart makes, no, this is the result of him completely tampering with the entire realm of existence. To that, we must snuff out the Thunder God here and now." Quan Chi responded, only to be cut off again by Rain.

"So you can become the ruler of time?" The daggers of his eyes saw through the sorcerer, but Quan Chi smirked a wry, thin smile of smug intent and spat back.

"Is that not what you would do? Any of us here?" He gauged the temperature of the room, all of it the same.

"We all have things we want to do, goals we wish to meet, and we've all agreed to come here and help you because you agreed to help us. If you become the keeper of time, what's stopping you from destroying all of us?" Rain added, "I will kill you before that happens."

"Assuming I don't tell Kotal Kahn you've been planning to usurp him before this all comes to fruition." Quan Chi stood and leaned over the table to eye the Edenian what he hoped was power over him.

"Do it. Skarlet will be at my side when I kill him, and then we'll kill you." Rain stood to match him.

"She would never turn on Ko'atal." Kia cut between them with her voice, she stood and mocked the idea, "she is as much his as Jade was, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been between her thighs too."

As the arguments began and the tensions rose, Sub-Zero eyed Scorpion, silent, still as all of this transpired. if the specter had pupils they'd be locked on Bi-Han. Sub-Zero without need to stand pressed his hand against the table and from the tip of his flesh the wood began to crystalize and the air around them chilled to a deathly cold only the specter would be comfortable in. The rest pulled away and all eyes fell onto the Lin Kuei.

"A God is not easily destroyed, and if we have no clue where how he holds this power, then it will be a long time before any of these plans come to fruition." He added, "until then, time is ours just like the future. So, sit down, everyone, and let's figure out how we take out the Earth Realm defenders first."

"Skarlet will fight one of them tomorrow." Rain suggested. "She will not hesitate to kill them if I tell her to."

"What if Kotal Kahn says otherwise?" Kia prodded further, but Rain ignored it.

"I will see to it that Johnny Cage dies tonight. Under the terms of Mortal Kombat, of course." Quan Chi assured them.

"I will have Jax kill his partner." Sub-Zero added to the pile, though his seemed far harder than Kia's thoughts of Skarlet's betrayal of Kotal Kahn. "The future is wild, and I plan to be at the helm, but until then, let's agree to do this."

"Yes. Scorpion will handle the monks. Kotal Kahn, I know, will want to quell the fires that burn in the Native." Quan Chi added the two the others refused to mention. Stronger than the others, sure, but they were still mortal. "I will deal with Raiden.

"Then we have all reached a common ground." Rain backed from the table and the meeting was over.


	89. 89 Johnny Cage

_Deception_, Cage through a glass against the wall of his personal chamber, as he played the day over in his mind. A world of games and deception picked like spiders in his head. He turned after a flare of anger washed from his face, the outworld slave still on the bed.

"Sorry."

"That is Quan Chi pulling the strings inside you."

"No, not just him."

He met her at the foot of the bed.

"Tell me."

"I am Johnny Cage, money, power, fame. All of it. I've earned that." He added, "since being fired it's all been downhill, Hollywood just chews on you till you're raw and spits you back out."

"Sounds like Outworld."

"I don't know if it's all been Quan Chi, or if this downward spiral's been happening before then and I've just been ignoring it till now."

"It's not you, Johnny." She assured, and added, "you should leave this island. Go back to the way things were."

"I'm trapped." He met her eyes, she smiled, but he didn't understand why.

"No, you're bound by the laws of Mortal Kombat, and if you are defeated you are forced to leave. If you win, you move on to the next fighter."

"What are you getting at?"

"Challenge me to Mortal Kombat and lose, and you will get to leave all of this behind you."

"You can just do that?"

"It has to be consented, but yes."

He stepped back. Took a moment to see her fully as she knelt on the edge of the bed in just tunic and pants, medieval and still beautiful, but she'd be left behind if he did this. he tugged on his shirt collar and let the flush red of his anger subside as reason clouded his brain.

"What happens to you?"

"I'm a slave, Johnny," she added, "there is no happy ending with me." The Outworld slave pulled herself from the bed and approached the Earth Realmer that had taken her since his arrival and balled the cloth of his shirt in a gentle fist. "I challenge you to Mortal Kombat."

His hand met her wrist and he gestured to pull away, but stopped. This little moment he needed to look into her eyes, to see that this was the only spark of light she may otherwise ever see. To free him would be her only expression of freedom, of individual.

It wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't be more than him in front of her, on his knees to yield the challenge to her.

"I accept," the spark of his eyes met hers as she began to illuminate with a green hue from pupil to iris, from maw and flesh.

"We are pleased to know." She pushed him back and a chorus of voices echoed as her flesh rapidly dried and decayed. She stepped back into a body bound by cloth and leather, red and black shrouded a deformed corpse that then rose a meter and cast its glaring green eyes down at Johnny Cage. "Fight!"

"Holy shit!" Cage staggered back against a wardrobe of old stained wood that nearly splintered by his body crashed against it.

"We are Ermac. We cannot be defeated."

Johnny clawed at the edge of the wardrobe and pushed it down between them, taking a quick stance to the right, but Ermac followed him unaffected by the crash, the space between them nothing as he swooped down from his aerial position.

Cage felt the cold hands, stiff and leathery as the grappled at his chest and shoved him against the hard wood wall, then pull him up against the stone ceiling. His back scraped along the old wood. He reached for the corpse's throat and found a tight, hard surface to ring, but no squeeze would affect him, no tug, or jerk.

Ermac's hands met Cage's throat as Johnny felt his body pulled down from the ceiling until that energy that illuminated Ermac's eyes seeped around Cage's body to hold him against the ceiling with him.

Cage reached for anything he could. He clawed at the leather wrapping around Ermac's face, the corpse beneath revealed to him with taut, decayed flesh and green orbs that sat wavering in the sockets of the entity. He stuck his hand inside of the eye sockets and choked the bone and taut flesh between, tugged and tore at him. The energy surrounded his hand and pulled away from Cage's body until he fell from the ceiling.

His arms instinctively braced for the crash into the wardrobe, but he felt no splinters, no boards break beneath him. Ermac reached for him, his hands clutched Cage in the air and slowly pulled him back up.

"Oh, come on!" Cage tried to kick, jerk, roll, anything to get out of the hold.

"You are nothing to us." Ermac hissed at they pulled Cage closer and closer up.

_Nothing?_

Cage stopped, not his body, but his struggling. Since he had started this, everyone had latched on to him to tell him how much power he didn't have, and how unimportant he was to them. Every single one of them went out of their way to show how useless and unnecessary he was to them, but only now did he finally realize just how wrong they were.

"I'm Johnny Cage, and I am the whole damn game."

Cage used the energy to tilt his body to meet Ermac's skull with his boots and stomped out the entity until it let go of him. Ermac formed on the floor with Cage. He cursed himself for having landed, crashed within the wardrobe, but was quick to pull himself out.

As he lunged to his feet and charged the entity, Ermac graded Cage's back to brace himself. Johnny shoved Ermac into the wall and struck him with several hard jabs to the dusty cages of his ribs. He realized quick enough it would have little effect on the already dead entity, he returned his focus to the skull where the energy first emanated from.

Ermac clenched Cage's ribs and sucked the breath out of him to force the mortal to meet eye to eye with him before that ancient maw exploded in green light that felt like a sledgehammer to Cage's chest as it threw him across the room.

His back met the door, then the wall in the outside hallway. His body crumbled into the rubble as the entity had already rushed to the doorway to meet him.

"Johnny!" A voice filled the hall, louder than he expected.

When the rubble and dust wiped from his eyes, he saw two women stood between him and Ermac. One in blue, the other in pink, then his eyes were cast down with a barrage of dust from and rubble.

He felt his shirt balled upward into another strong fist he thought was Ermac, but as soon as he could see, a creature with jagged teeth and eyes wild like a beast, but the shape of a young woman pushed him up to his feet.

The other was already in the room engaged in combat with Ermac. This creature soon joined her, but hissed for him to join, though she did not recall his name.

Once inside, the three spread out around the hooded figure of Ermac. Though not known to him, Kitana and Mileena stood at both sides. Each began to take turns striking and defending against the entity's attacks. When Ermac would pull one with they're energy, the other two would come in to break it.

When the two would engage Ermac, the entity force them all back. A stalemate by any other name.

"This battle is with the Earth Realmer." Ermac hissed.

Mileena lunged into Ermac and let the full gape of her jaw widened to case the entity's neck between them. Ermac, unaffected by the pain as the cloth and leather shredded, pushed forward with her latched on and Kitana at the side with hard low kicks as Johnny faced the entity head on.

"We will go then." Ermac pushed them all back, but they're words were not quite what Cage had hoped.

Once Mileena had been removed and Kitana fell against the bed, Ermac reached out with the force of their energy and tugged Cage close to them.

The two vanished in a bright display of light. Kitana and Mileena covered their eyes, but neither could get close enough until they were gone.

Johnny felt ground beneath his feet. Stone, but something threw him off. Something strange about where he stood and only when his eyes, blinded by the light of Ermac could see again did he realize that odd feeling was the wind and altitude that tugged on his every side to pull him down into the abyss from a thin stone bridge.

Across from him, Ermac stood, unencumbered by the battle and stared with zero emotion through those green orbs of light.

"Look down." Ermac spoke calm and in control.

"I'd rather not." He had no choice. Beneath him were spires of spikes with skeletons, corpses and even flesh blood that fell from tip to earth. A pit of death waited for him after a long fall from the thin seemingly brittle bridge.

"In the end, I become them and I lead them. After all, none of us really qualify as human." He stepped closer to Johnny as he spoke, but his steps were not on the stone, but the air itself. "You will become one of them, one of us."

There was no escape.

No help.

No one but them here on this bridge and only one of them was going to walk away. He needed to make sure the one to walk away was still living.

As Ermac edged closer, their hand reached out and a flame like flicker of that energy licked at the cold wind around them. Johnny found himself forced down face first against the dirt and stone of the bridge. His body turned to force him to look down, head hung over the edge. His body began to tilt upward.

"It is over, Hollywood." the many voices that comprised the entity all whispered into the air in unison only to be taken by the wind.

His fingers clenched the stone, what cracks and crevices he could claw to keep from being launched over, but as the voices sank in and the certainty of death stared back at him from the eye of the dead beneath him, he felt his body almost crippled with adrenaline. It coursed through him and flowed like blood that pulsed against the energy around him, what strength it gave him, he used to hold tight, but his body continued to raise until he felt nothing but blood rush to his face.

All this time, secured by Ermac's whim, he realized what little time he had left and in a rash move, let go of the stone ledge and reached for Ermac's ankles. He managed to curl and wrap latch onto the entity with something of a leglock, but Ermac only pulled him further into the air until both were over the ledge.

"Only one of us will fall." Ermac reminded him.

He ignored the banter and kicked as he tried his damned hardest to climb the corpse like a rocky cliff, and though the heel of his boot caved in the entity's chest, it did not affect Ermac. It wasn't until one last hoist up, one last desperate kick caved in the skull of the entity and the energy pulsed around them.

Ermac fell.

Not so far down, but enough to waiver. They held steady quickly enough, Cage still attached, upside down and his face reddened as blood rushed to meet his brain. All reason flooded away as he kicked one last time, unable to recognize the green light around his own body that, as his foot struck the creatures chest, forced him back onto the bridge, just barely enough to hold to.

The entity fell to the spikes below and became pierced through the chest.

Cage, only a glimpse to confirm this, was satisfied enough with that small glance to then pull himself up. His body crumbled hands and knees as the blood began to course through his body, and the adrenaline crippled his spine with wave after wave.

"I win." He gasped between heavy breaths.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw figured race out from the courtyard toward the bridge. They looked like Sonya and Stryker, Raiden and Liu Kang, but he couldn't tell, only that they weren't the humongous robed beasts, nor the bald sorcerer. He only hoped for victory.

Beat. Beat. Beat his heart pumped.

Gasp.

Each deep breath steadied his body.

A hand reached down for him, and this he could tell was not Ermac.

"Take my hand, Johnny Cage." Raiden assured him and then pulled Cage up.

Caged climbed to his feet with the God's help and leaned against him, barely able to stand on his own.

"Thanks, pal," he managed to breath out between gasps and heavy heart beats.

"It's over now." Raiden said, but his voice was thrown past him.

Johnny paused.

He turned slowly to meet the reformed skull, the deep sockets that illuminated with green energy and the corpse lifted high in the air as though nothing had happened.

"We are not defeated." Ermac declared.

"You have lost this fight!" Raiden demanded of him, "return to your master!"

Ermac stared, Raiden's voice carried no weight to pull them down.

"You will return, Ermac." A deeper voice carried, one with the weight of all the souls within the entity.

Quan Chi and Kotal Kahn stood from the wooden bridge that connected around the jagged cliff from the courtyard.

"Johnny Cage wins." Kotal Kahn announced.


	90. 90 Stryker

The sun baked the white sands of the beach with its hard glare, one of many that joined to see the morning's round of combat.

Kotal Kahn sat at the helm in a throne of bone and wood, with only Rain and Skarlet at his sides. His eyes cast like the sun into the hot sand, the wood slab caked over support the fighters with a squared circle. Skarlet peered from the Kahn's right over to Rain, the horizon beyond them, and then as the first wave of fighters arrived, her eyes cast solely upon the white robes of the Thunder God as he marched with a handful of Earth Realm's defenders.

No others to intervene, Kotal Kahn nodded for Raiden to approach, no sorcery or trickery between them on the same sand that saw blood spilled the day before.

"This contest will be Outworld against Earth Realm." Kotal Kahn announced.

Rain sat back, his face veiled in purple silk attached to a gold facet that wrapped from ear to ear, only the best of Edenian fashion. As an Edenian, he relaxed, free to watched as this would not be his fight.

"Well met, Kotal Kahn." Raiden greeted with a slight nod of deference and stepped back three steps until he met the line of his fighters.

Stryker and Sonya to his left, Nightwolf and Johnny Cage to his left.

"This is a contest acknowledging the ancient traditions of the realms, Raiden. There will be no more breaking of these customs now that I preside over the contest."

"One can only hope, Kotal Kahn." Raiden returned, but it was no longer his time to speak and as soon as their eyes broke from one another, he stepped back further to allow the defenders of the realm to choose among them who would fight this battle.

"Johnny Cage," Kotal Kahn singled him out, "you did not truly defeat Ermac, but I have granted you victory out of sheer respect for your will to live and ability to fight. I have seen enough from you for now."

Johnny closed his eyes behind black shades and let out a long breath, relieved, and took a step back.

"Nightwolf," Kotal addressed him next, "you're heart is not in this fight for Earth Realm."

"Your heart is corrupted by Quan Chi." Nightwolf spat.

"Should we fight, you would not be the first Nightwolf I have killed." The Kahn stared the Native down and saw the memory of his massacre in the forests that lead to the Nightwolf before him. "It will not be today."

"If the Great Spirit wills it, I will make it this day." Nightwolf reached for his axe, but a voice reached out to him from behind.

Raiden whispered, so only Nightwolf could hear, "stand down, this is not your fight."

With hesitation he obliged.

The knock of leather boots on hard wood drummed close to the inner circle of the arena and the three that sat before them eyed the Earth Realmer that had chosen to fight.

"Who are you?" Rain pondered, half joking.

"Lieutenant Kurtis Stryker." As if in formation, ready to march into battle at the drop of a hat he stood, hands behind his back, uniform fresh and baked upon his flesh under the glaring sun.

There was a long pause as the three watched the sun press down on the defenders of Earth Realm as they sat in the shade of a blood red linen stretched between bone pillars of ancient ribs. Such was the way of Kotal Kahn's Mortal Kombat.

Stryker waited, gum in maw, patience thin.

"Who will represent Outworld?" Raiden demanded.

Adorned in an attire fit for the Soviet Union, as if ready to march on behest of Stalin himself, black and red and her face covered by a leather mask, Skarlet stood from her seat upon high and stepped down to enter the arena.

"A girl?" Stryker balked, though he knew Sonya stood behind him.

"I am no girl." Skarlet stood six-feet from her enemy. She pulled herself from the long coat that weighed her down in the heat. She had a dagger tied to her thighs, as well as a vial of blood to her waist, the rest just clothing from head to toe. No armor, no need.

"Fight!" Kotal Kahn instructed, his voice carried the weight of the tournament behind it and carried throughout the island sands.

Stryker spat his gum across the distance between them and quickly drew the hand guns at his waist to quickly seal the deal for himself, but as she should have been smacked and disrespected by the distraction, Skarlet reached for her vial and lunged for her opponent.

One bullet popped off and cut through the fabric above Kotal Kahn. He followed her well, the next bullet through the soviet hat that blew off her head.

The vial popped open and out spilled what seemed like drops of blood scattered around Skarlet. This halted Stryker as he had never seen such impotence in combat, until the drops elongated into seven small spikes that raised shoulder level to her.

"Capitalist pig" Skarlet show one after the other at the American.

Jab after jab they poked like needles at his uniform, but could not pierce as he swatted and defended what felt like a swarm of bats, or large mosquitos. Once he saw a clearing for her, he raised both guns and shot them straight on.

Flashes of blood shattered in the air between them, but where she should have been, there was only sand and distance. Stryker followed her movement up into the air where the four remaining spikes of blood then aimed down at him.

Each shot down at him at once as her hand gestured down with them. Her body lowered as he was barraged by those small spears of blood. His only defense was to shoot again. Each bullet shot up, out and tried to follow Skarlet down.

All he had left had missed, save for one that grazed her right shoulder and stuck into the bone pillar behind her.

Time paused as she reached up to feel the open cloth peel away to a stream of blood. She snickered beneath her breath, the injury stung worse than any capsule of blood had. He recovered fast from her barrage, but she stood in place, her fingers covered and the lines of red traced along the curves of her pale flesh.

"Hands behind your head and drop to your knees." Stryker ordered after he dropped one gun to maintain control of the only one with a single bullet left. "It's over for you."

Skarlet stood in disbelief. Her eyes traced his, the rest of the world blind to her as Stryker closed the gap between them enough to give him a point blank shot through her skull.

As he locked eyes with her, the barrel stared her down just as intently, he edged ever closer, focused and ready to put the blood witch down if he needed to. If he could see behind that mask, he thought he'd see a criminal with no escape, ready to surrender, but as he thought that, she let out the faintest laugh that grew and a slight movement drew his eyes from hers to the fingers that dug into her shoulder.

"You're really dumb, aren't you?" She caught his gaze again just in time to catch him by surprise as her hand whipped the shards of blood that hardened in the air and cut into him from chest to waist.

The gun cut from his grasp, he watched it fall and dropped to his knees to reach for it. Skarlet closed the gap before he could wrap those reddened fingers on the handle. She stomped for them, only to meet a baton swat her at the ankle. He jumped up to strike her chin and kicked her back onto the wood floor.

"You're a real cunt." Stryker spat, "you know that?"

Rain leaned toward the edge of his chair, his eyes cast from Kotal Kahn to Skarlet, with no ability to help. He waited as the Earth Realmer raised his gun and stalked Skarlet point blank.

She backed away from him, her blood and his mixed as it pooled where she grabbed to pull away from him until he nearly onto of her and the barrel of the gun between her eyes.

This moment, as their eyes met one last time, he cherished this as he had every time he put down a rogue civilian. A criminal by any other name, she was a murderer and a beast that could not be left alive. This moment he realized those human laws no longer applied and the only way out was death.

Hers.

Nothing from Kotal Kahn.

Nothing from Raiden.

Skarlet, if she could let him see beneath that mask widened that bruised jawline to a manic grin. She had spread their blood in a line across the floor and he had still yet to learn.

Slice!

Bang!

In a split second his hands were cut in a saw-like motion by the blood that caked them and the trigger pulled back to let loose its last bullet that shot through the mask as Skarlet twisted her face to brace for the hit.

As she opened her eyes, the lieutenant was on his knees and hands at her feet. She used the blood to pedestal herself to a standing position. Like a cane that hardened and then the river that flowed beneath them, so seamless, he hadn't even noticed the dagger at his throat and the girl behind him.

Rain clenched the arms of his chair and licked his lips with approval. As he voiced for her, Kotal Kahn broke the silence just an instant before and cut him down.

"Finish him!" Kotal Kahn urged.

Sonya held back, and the other defenders of Earth Realm forced back, Kotal Kahn's promise of no intervention now played against them.

"Shallow cuts." She chanted the mantra to herself beneath the mask, "shallow cuts."

The blade slid between his fragile human flesh and let the river break the forest line of skin and race down. Still alive, he held his throat and watched as she raised the blood that fell around them from their battle into the air above the two of them, including the which flowed from within. His fingers poor dams and collapsed as those shallow cuts widened and deepened and the cloud of blood pooled above the two.

"It's so hot out, Piggy." She danced in her enchantment, intoxicated by the metallic aroma and the taste in the air. "Let's make it rain."

Her eyes never broke from Rain's as the blood fell like daggers into the collapsed corpse of the Earth Realmer and the remaining blood misted and fell like water down onto entirety of the arena.

_Eto vam_, her thoughts projected through the intent of her eyes as they stared.


	91. 91 Kuai Liang

The air felt stale through the cloth mask of the Lin Kuei. In and out his cold breath melted by the heat of the sun, just barely a whisp of smoke to reveal the nature of his blood.

Kuai Liang leaned against the stone wall that surrounded the island past the long walk toward the courtyard. Beside him, to his left, an old friend watched the horizon with him. Nicknamed Smoke, his gray hair flowed almost to his shoulders where it, like the sea, would crash along the surface of his shoulders.

His attire black and grey, much unlike Sub-Zero and the other Lin Kuei, and yet a member all the same. The ancient tradition of the clan was passed onto many generations, many different men and women of similar bloodline as Sub-Zero, and otherwise.

"Well met." A voice emerged from Kuai's right.

It was as if the foam of the sea had formed into the shroud of and cloak over the figure of an older man, his head hidden deep beneath the raft of his conical hat.

"It is Tundra." Kuai responded, Smoke remained silent.

"What news have you?" The robed figure approached, slowly, but stopped at a body's length from the two.

"I have nothing, Lord Raiden." Kuai returned, his eyes finally met with that of the Thunder God's. "Not regarding Quan Chi, at least."

"Your brother is certain to follow through with his plans to replace the Lin Kuei with machines." Raiden read the low nod from Kuai, but he knew more than he let on.

In an old timeline Smoke and Tundra would have been on a mission to assassinate Shang Tsung, but upon arrival find that half of the Lin Kuei had been deformed and distorted into the bodies of machines. The impulses of their brains trapped into the cold robotics of the future Tundra had desperately fought against.

Now?

"Adamant, Lord Raiden." Kuai continued, "every day a new project. I have done my best to stop him, but he is family, I cannot do what I know needs to be done."

"He believes this is the future, the way of all mankind." Smoke added.

"Madness. Plain and simple." Raiden explained in as little words needed, for the he knew the end result of the cyber initiative. "I would much prefer the culture and traditions of the Lin Kuei continue as they have for thousands of generations."

"As would I." Kuai agreed.

"How can we stop it? Bi-Han has brought with him only his supporters, besides us, his trusted friend and brother. He has also, after Kano's death, taken hold of the Black Dragon while they wait to return to Earth Realm." Smoke pondered, for the two of them against Bi-Han's army would be suicide.

"Once the Black Dragon are in the hands of Kabal, we won't have to deal with them, but there are still my brother's supporters." Kuai Liang couldn't find the answer either.

"Seek out the spectre." Raiden caught them in their throat. "The revenant they call Scorpion."

Kuai Liang fed Raiden a glare, but he dared not speak as the words plagued him to understand this suggestion. It came from the Thunder God, who must know a vast wealth more, but to throw them from the bottom of the iceberg into the fires of hell he could not understand.

"Scorpion would kill us as well." Smoke prodded for another suggested.

"You are not his enemy. Your brother is too arrogant to know that, Tundra." Raiden pushed firmly, "and the Earth Realm fighter Jax will aid you as well."

"The one with the arms?" Smoke turned to Kuai, having only seen the man when they confronted him at the bridge. "They were frozen solid, likely amputated. He'd be useless to us."

"My brother has changed that." Kuai Liang could see as the doctors worked hard on the officer over the course of that night. His brother loomed over them, assured Kuai that this would save him. Change him for the better.

"When?" Smoke broke the spell of Kuai's thoughts.

"Now." Raiden urged before he dissipated into the air that crackled with energy around them.

"Now." Kuai agreed.

The spires jutted up in the distance, the beach a thin line of sand that stretched along the edge of the island's flesh. To one side, a small jungle of twisted souls awaited the lost to drown within its haunted forest, but there was another set of woods where the trees were sparingly placed, and the land a green and grey maze Kuai Liang chose to summon the hell specter.

To each side of him, barring the thin trace of the spires that edged the rest of the island on the side that held the tournament, he was surrounded by nothing and no one. A lone and lost member of the Lin Kuei, unaware that as he head moved beyond the walls of the courtyard to descend into this untraveled region of the island, he had already been followed.

There was no real means to summon the entity known as Scorpion, save for being Quan Chi himself. A journey of truth and dare, Kuai Liang stood in the middle of the rows of near endless trees like spikes beneath the bridge that hid the spy behind him. The only hint of another soul caught him too late when the click and clack of chains raced out toward him. Kuai Liang ducked under the spear that buried itself into the thin tree just inches from him. He reached for the chains, his blood pulsed as the metal froze in his grasp and stretched out toward its master.

Scorpion retracted the chain after the ice had broken the links. It didn't need a spear for him, he began to spin the jagged edge and tossed it again toward the Lin Kuei. Kuei Liang allowed the chain to wrap him at the wrist, the cold of his essence would only freeze and shatter it, Scorpion knew his just as well as he, but this time he stood and let it coil, and tighten, and tug him toward the specter.

"I am not your enemy!" Kuai Liang spat, but did not fight the pull.

"The Lin Kuei are my enemy." The Specter through his voice forward as he tugged the cold body closer.

"I did not kill your family Hanzo. It was not the Lin Kuei!" Scorpion tightened his grip on the chain and yanked Kuai Liang closer to the ground, all the better to shut him up.

"Hanzo Hasashi is dead, I am his vengeance." Kuai Liang, unable to convince the specter shattered the chains as Scorpion approached and jumped to his feet to fight back.

Scorpion dropped the chains and trailed metal for fists as they quickly exchanged strikes. Left, right, block, hit, as Scorpion edged the Lin Kuei on his toes, he noticed there was little effort in this fight. Too easy for him.

Kuei Liang stepped and dragged back, quick retractions to keep up with the specter and neared the jagged point of the broken spear's edge in the tree as Scorpion pushed him back. He could see the depths of the whites of those eyes that stared deep into his pupils and realized there was no means to reason with Scorpion on a level he could with any normal human. This was not a human, but an entity, an idea. Scorpion was vengeance incarnate.

"I will show you who killed your family!" Kuai Liang spat. "The swear the lives of the Lin Kuei that I will help you kill if I fail."

Scorpion paused.

Silence.

This was his only moment to reason, as it were, with the specter.

"I know who killed your family, Scorpion. I can take you to them. I will help you kill them for they ruined the Lin Kuei as well."

"Lin Kuei still survive."

Scorpion watched the eyes of the young Lin Kuei member for the truth, for his soul, and could feel the cold heart beat with heat and strength, and a little of fear. "The Lin Kuei is as good as dead under my brother."

"The child that plays with machines?" Scorpion recognized the idea of Bi-Han, but saw him pictured as dead in his mind. Kuai Liang nodded.

"I'm going to stop him." Kuai Liang added, "and considering the task, I need your help."

This gave Scorpion another pause. His eyes narrowed, his hand dropped to the hilt of his katana, but the Lin Kuei member refused to defend himself.

"If not the Lin Kuei, then who?" The first breath of reason Kuai Liang had heard from the specter's echoed voice.

"I can take you to the man that knows and I will help you kill him." Scorpion shook his head at this as Kuai Liang tried to bargain, so he pushed further, "I don't ask that you trust me, only that you hold me to my word."

"Actions speak louder than words."

Kuai Liang nodded. "That they do."

Some time ahead, Kuai Liang had gathered Smoke at his side and only four other members of the Lin Kuei that had continued to push against the cyber initiative his brother forced onto them.

Down a long winding hall into the depths of the first and largest spire, the Lin Kuei and Black Dragon were held nearly in the same chambers. Now under the control of Bi-Han until the Black Dragon could be returned to Kabal on Earth Realm, Kuai Liang knew it would not be easy to get out should a fight ensue, assuming the specter never answer the call.

The portal doors, fastened metal with a small pad that Kuai Liang had to press his thumb to in order to gain entrance widened for the group. Inside, Bi-Han stood by Jax with folded arms as two men in white coats looked over the American Bi-Han had deformed.

"We're busy." Bi-Han excused his brother, not even a glance given.

"We're going to talk." Kuai Liang pressed.

Bi-Han called out to Sektor and Cyrax, back turned toward his brother. The two tall cyborgs, designed in red and yellow respectively, approached the door to push the intruders out.

"You are not the Sub-Zero our Grandfather wanted you to become!" Kuai Liang spat and pushed through with Smoke before the cyborgs blocked the other Lin Kuei at the door. "You will make time for me, or I will deactivate these toys of yours."

"Shit ,son, time for a show." Jax sat back and watched.

Bi-Han turned toward his brother. He stripped the mask from his face and tossed it to the cold metal floor.

"Grandfather is gone, as are the old ways of the Lin Kuei." Bi-Han returned with vitriol in his spit. "Welcome to the 90s, brother, this is the new era and we need to step forward into it if we're to survive, evolve."

"Our people have survived for thousands of generations, and our culture has thrived only until you stepped in as Sub-Zero. These machines are not the future."

"It's been dying for a long time, you just haven't noticed." Bi-Han added, "father and grandfather were stuck in their old ways. This ancient ruin of a cult. I'm tired of it. Religions die, brother, they're nothing but lies to control people, at least I'm being honest about the cyber initiative."

Kuai Liang approached, his breath faded across his brother's face through his own mask, he wanted to reach out, to hold him, to strangle him, to find some sense of reason within a grasp.

"You're my brother, my blood. Family, all that," Kuai Liang continued, "but you're really stubborn."

"Same to you." Bi-Han smirked. "Always, brother."

"One thing you're not though," Kuai Liang did not return that grin, as if his brother could see, but his eyes bore holes into his own flesh and blood. "Is Sub-Zero."

On Bi-Han's breast was a medallion etched with the symbol a dragon. Come the time it would have been matched the power of something known as a Kamidogu, but even those, like the Lin Kuei in this moment, had faded. He snatched the medallion and tore it from his brother's cloth.

Bi-Han stood unfazed. Jax watched, amused.

"if you're not with me, then you're against me." Bi-Han. "Sektor, Cyrax, kill them."

The machines beeped and hissed as they sprung into action. The Lin Kuei at the door lunged forth with Smoke.

"What gives you the authority?" Bi-Han pushed Kuai Liang back and advanced on him. "What gives you the right to betray your own family, you're own clan?"

"A God." Kuai Liang spat.

"I don't believe in a God." He turned toward Jax and found a hard metallic clap smack him across the face in the form of those hard knuckles he had a hand in creating.

"I don't give a fuck about your vision!" Jax kicked Bi-Han whilst he was down.

Kuai Liang pulled Bi-Han to his feet, and pushed him against the table behind Jax and held him down to strike.

"Help them!" Kuai Liang ordered the officer, Jax followed and joined Smoke that had been knocked back by the red cyborg.

Bi-Han spat into his brother's face and pushed him off. His back cracked and arched into place, his fists raised and his blood spilled between the two brothers.

Before he could react, the room, like a small meeting hall began to fill with Lin Kuei and Black Dragon. The few that followed Kuai Liang were overtaken and their blood spilled beneath cold feet. Smoke, Jax, and Kuai Liang pushed from the cyborgs to the wall, Bi-Han between them.

Cyrax inched forward as its chest split open with two plates that parted to allow a green sticky net that ensnared Smoke. Sector reached out with its forearm, the hulking mass that would have been muscle hid a small missile within it. Bi-Han held him back with a touch, knowing that would not be the best course of action in a metal cell, so Sektor instead activated two nodes on its wrist that began to burn hot with sparks. The cyborg's hand was a flamethrower.

"With you gone, the cult of the Lin Kuei can finally die and my vision can be realized." Bi-Han smirked, smug, an his eyes cast the spell of a man that had long awaited this moment. "Fuck the Lin Kuei!"

Sektor pressed down on the two nodes and as embers emitted from the hole in its palm, the whips of cackling fire reached out to lash it from the floor. From behind, a single motion, what looked like a flash of light severed the cyborg's arm. Bi-Han pulled away from the flames, as did the others behind him, save for Cyrax that turned to extinguish it.

"Get over here!" A voice through in the middle of the conflict and a spear ruptured through Sektor's chest to pull it back with enough force to launch the cyborg over the crowd and into the blade of the specter known as Scorpion. Deactivated, Sektor lay unable to move as oil and blood leaked from its core and stump. Scorpion stood on the head of the cybernetic assassin and pointed his blade toward the Black Dragon and Lin Kuei able to enter the room.

"This one's arm now belongs to me, and every body part I severe from here on. The debt of the Lin Kuei to my clan will be paid in blood." Scorpion then raced toward the line of bodies as the group ahead of him broke from the wall to lunge at Bi-Han and Cyrax.

In a heated grey haze, Smoke detached himself from the core group to pull Cyrax away into the hall where the rest of the Black Dragon and Lin Kuei under Bi-Han's thumb gathered. The metal he struck was harder than his fists could hit, but the machine was slower than his ability to dissipate and reemerge. Body after body he'd use as collateral before Cyrax stopped and waited for Smoke to emerge. When it scanned the bodies alive and dead for the telltale signal of air disturbed around them, its chest opened wider to allow a long saw to emerge and cut through a member of the Black Dragon to surprise Smoke. The saw caught the right side of his chest, but not too deep. He dissipated in a red haze to retreat back into the room.

Inside the metal cell, the bodies began to squirm like the insects they were beneath Scorpion. Limbs severed, men and woman filled the echoing chamber with screams, but Bi-Han still remained with Kuai Liang across from him.

Jax had parted only to meet Cyrax at the door where Smoke had reemerged.

A solid kick to the ribs, Bi-Han pushed his brother's body to crumble beneath him, so the cryomancer would return with a ball of ice that was shattered as it flew across the room into the wall. The mask near torn from his face and his clothes lined with streaks of blood, Kuai Liang felt his brother at his throat to pull him up against the cold metal wall. His own flesh and blood stared down into his eyes unable to discern family from foe and clenched down on his throat.

"You were to be my greatest machine yet, brother." Bi-Han spat, his own blood spilled on Kuai Liang's face.

Ice would not do the trick, and Bi-Han had betrayed that bloodline already. Instead, he dragged Kuai Liang along the wall a series of boxes that would harbor the supplies needed to make any fixes or upgrades to the cyborgs. A stack of three large crates tucked against the wall and two just ahead. He opened the closest he could reach without letting his brother go and produced a gun from the assortment inside.

A knee to the gut and a kick to the cheek bones dropped Kuai Liang to the floor. This gave Bi-Han the time to check the chamber and aim for his brother, the dying echo of the past.

"You must find me sadistic, and I'd like to believe, brother, you're aware enough to know there's nothing sadistic in my actions." The gun clicked and Bi-Han's finger reached for the trigger. "No, this is me at my most––"

Unable to finish his words, Bi-Han's arm was pinned to the metal wall. A thin sheet of metal to mask over the ancient wood beneath it. A spear then pulled out from the wall and with it, Bi-Han's arm.

Kuai Liang through his haze and the screen of blood that covered his eyes reached out with what little sight he had to find the enflamed form of the specter reach for its mask and reveal a white skull beneath.

Then came the fire.

Kuai Liang rolled as best he could from the flames until he felt someone pull him from the icy floor and Smoke, just as blood soaked as he pull him from the flames. Jax held them both back until the specter's fire died out as the mask of human flesh and cloth covered the burning skull again.

"Actions speak louder than words." Scorpion watched the wormlike body of Bi-Han twist and contort.

His own flesh and blood now bubbles of gas, puss, melted away with Bi-Han's humanity. The cloth burned mostly away, and his skull began to peer out from the curvature of flesh that coiled like a cigarette down around his eyes.

"I hate you!" The mass screamed, the words melted away with his flesh.

Kuai Liang pushed forward past Jax and stood aside the Specter.

"I loved you, Bi-Han! You were my brother!" He couldn't see the face from the wreckage that looked back at him for the last time.

Scorpion approached the mangled wreck and picked up the remains that still writhed even in his grasp. His eyes cast like flames back at the remaining Lin Kuei and a portal of fire consumed him and the effigy to Kuai Liang's bloodline.

Hidden within the confines the spires, what seemed like a safe and empty room burst with blood and haze as Smoke, Jax, and Kuai Liang emerged from the wreckage. The shadows around them cast from the ancient walls closed in only to greet them with a flash of light as two figures emerged to greet them.

"Kuai Liang!" Raiden caught the young Lin Kuei as he fell from his injuries.

Jax caught Smoke around the shoulder and held the cut the at his chest. The two surviving Lin Kuei members gazed up at the God, a female adorned in blue at his left.

"It is Sub-Zero now, Lord Raiden." Kuai Liang could only speak between gritted teeth and hard breaths.

Kitana knelt by his side to survey the wounds and Raiden leaned down to heal them as best he could.

This was a hard moment for Kuai Liang to digest. His new allies, his new brother at his side in Smoke, and a world now lost behind him. To rebuild the Lin Kuei would be a harder task than he could imagine.

Harder even than to convince the dead to help him.

A small ember burned. In his heart, but also across the small chamber. It was not the wood lit aflame, but the air itself as it formed into the specter known as Scorpion. Raiden turned from Sub-Zero to meet the spirit eye to eye.

"We have a great deal to discuss, Hanzo."


	92. 92 Skarlet

She laid within the confines of her mind as the wooden ceiling above her slowly rotted away. The blood stained her palette and the taste of horror in the eyes of those that saw her murder still trickled down the soft curves of her flesh like a hot bath that burned your flesh. It played over and over in her head, the feel of the dagger against another person's throat, the bumps and ridges of bone and muscle, the parts the body you don't see or think about all pressing back against the blade, or giving way like butter.

She was intoxicated by the murder, by the heat of his blood and the performance of it all, but now she lay alone in the dark of her chamber unable to let it go as if something went wrong, or some final note in that beautiful orchestra of a serial killer's piece fell silent, or on deaf ears.

How many men, women, children, and animals had she murdered for Outworld? Some more impactful than others, but every time there was a small vacancy within the deep recess of her mind she couldn't fill. Not with a man, not with a kill, not with her position in the army of Outworld.

There was something missing about her, perhaps a soul, or like a piece of her had been chipped away and stolen. Somewhere in the realms it hid from her, but she could not put a finger on what it was or where it could be.

So many years had past before she had given any thought to that tiny little hole that pulsed in the back of her mind.

Why now?

Why after murdering the Earth Realmer did it suddenly peak, or was it really that which sparked this tumor of thought?

Her eyes felt as though a great weight had slowly descended upon them and she allowed it to close her off from the world, but her thoughts remained. The pulse of her flesh and the course of her blood, run hot within her still trickled like a river over her flesh. She could not quell it.

Was it in her mind, or the crease between her lids that a figure so small stood at the opening where light should have broken through the carved window into the chamber?

She thought it was Rain, leaned over, or knelt, whatever he was doing.

She closed her eyes again.

What little remained of the waking world as she began to feel that murderous high finally subside only grew as if that boiling within her masked the world around her and how truly urgent it felt to her.

The bed began to crease and she could feel it at her feet, then slowly up beside her left thigh, hip, stomach. She reached down to find nothing, but small prints indented in the fabric.

Skarlet awoke.

Eyes wide, the world darkened but the entire chamber was within sight, crisp and vivid she could make out the ornamentals of the room from her personal gear. She remembered that hazy sight seconds ago by the window and it was still there.

Small and blended over curtain and wall like a shadow.

Blink! Blink!

Still there.

Once her feet touched the cool floor and a light chilled traced up her legs opposing that warm comfort of bed, the figure faded. It wasn't like the blink of an eye, but the blur of reality.

It was a shadow, but the window was closed, and the door shut.

Outside the chamber the halls were long and narrow and empty. She wore only the essentials of a black shirt, and pants and slipped into her boots as best she could in a hurry to check outside the room. No Rain, nobody at all even.

Just a voice inside her head.

_Have you forgotten me?_

She had forgotten that voice and who it belonged to.

Without any weapon, even the vial of blood to draw her magic from, Skarlet traced the veins of the hallways of the the spire she resided in until she had reached floor level. Naknadan guards stood at various posts, and she noticed a heightened presence of Lin Kuei and Black Dragon members. Some covered in blood, others armed for battle. She ignored them all and pushed through to the outside world.

The harsh light of day greeted her with a hard glare. It was noon and the height of the sun's hatred for her pale flesh bore down on her like a thousand knives. She squinted and shaded her eyes with a hand to find the path to the courtyard.

_Did you think I'd forget you?_

The voice scratched away at the inside of her skull like a spider that wouldn't flee.

Once she reached the courtyard walls she could hear the sounds of combat. The tournament was still at hand and Kotal Kahn could be heard over the dull roar of a small crowd.

There it is!

The shadow appeared along the wall, small, like a child, and began to move with haste as if to escape the sun, or her.

She followed.

The actual portion of the island dedicated to the tournament and chambers of the host were not as big as she would have expected. The walls, though in some parts in ruins, were tall and seemed to wrap around only a small portion of what would be the tournament grounds. The palace where Kotal Kahn would rest and subsequently watch the final fight, which gave way to a small corridor with a light prison, and a side exit toward an cliff overhang with a gong that would look over the spires. Beyond that, just the tournament grounds themselves, the pit and the warriors shrine. She was close to the shrine, having traced along the thin wood that lead to an old Naknadan statue once plated in gold, not spoiled over with foliage.

Quan Chi refused to maintain the island.

She followed the shadow until the forbidden forest edged against the walls of of a torture yard that had been crumbled and succumbed to the wilds of the evil forest. She could see the old statue to Goro that was the centerpiece of the warrior shrine, but he was only half a body. The wall she peered over to view this ruin that overlooked the courtyard followed further into the forest, but she had lost sight of the shadow.

In a frantic glance she searched for it, even pushed herself onto the crumbled dent in the wall to look over and and under, but there nothing.

Nothing but a voice.

"Keep an eye on Kotal Kahn." She heard travel like a strange whisper in the wind.

Somewhere in the forest she should not hear, but reached out to her, she followed it instead of the shadow. Slowly along the rubble and ruin of the wall that grew and sank as the destruction varied and the forest chipped away at it, she was careful to remain low, and to keep her back to wall. The voice came from the forest, a forest even with no voices, one does not put their back to.

"You have been loyal to this point, Syzoth–" a few stones of rubble fell as she slipped and scraped her flesh across the bark and crags of ancient bricks. The voice ceased and the world fell silent.

It was in this moment, this dire need to remain still and silent she peered through the divots in the branches and vines to find two bodies blue and pink was all she could make out. There was certainly another, but she could only see the two. Rationality betrayed Skarlet as she carefully moved forward toward a wide tree to listen, to watch and to get a better view.

Before her eyes she witnessed two Kitanas, the God that should have been locked away in the confines of the forgotten cells within Goro's Lair. Kitana spoke to a creature, humanoid, but Skarlet could not make out the being's identity. The other Kitana, the one in pink, she could not see well, only the backside of her. The hair and flesh identical, almost down to the stance, but it was a strange aura that surrounded this one. She could sense something different or off about her.

Then she turned.

To Skarlet horror the second Kitana craned her neck quick like a predator that has just detected the blood of its prey in the air and her maw widened to reveal a long row of fangs, too closely akin to the Tarkatans of Outworld.

No, those were Tarkatan fangs.

She had not seen something like this since–

The figure became a blur as it raced into the forest toward her. She reached for her dagger, but it wasn't there, and then for the vial of blood and that too she realized was missing.

She cursed under her breath for being so naive. She could only run now. run as fast as her feet could carry as she had suddenly become the prey.

The boots saved her from the spikes and edges of bark and stone as she traced the wall with little hope for an opening, but the moment she found another part of the wall that caved in, she raced for it.

The Tarkatan-like creature was in hot pursuit, undoubtedly with Kitana behind her and Sakrlet could sense the blood rage of her very essence. She had that felt that presence before, but had forgotten it as days become hundreds of years.

The cave in would be difficult to climb and likely easier for the predator to catch up to her. She remembered as her fingers clawed at the edges to climb that she had scraped her shoulder against the stones and bark and blood stained down her back. It stung, but it needed to be pricked and scraped again to produce enough to teleport.

_Into Goro's Lair._

The voice scratched inside her ears and she listened as her body gave way to the blood portal just as the two women her just about on her.

In the darkness Skarlet found relief. Her breath stabled after a needed moment of rest and the sting of her back was all she could feel as the racing of her heart subsided.

She recognized where she was, though the light was minimal she could see the twisted turns of cave that lead to the entrance of Goro's Lair, or formally his lair. Quan Chi now utilized it as his prison, torture chamber, and hideaway when the dark schemes boiled in his greedy mind. She knew he'd be occupied with whatever had gone on in the spires earlier in the day, but that did not mean the caves were empty.

In the low light she figured the shadow would be hard to see, but as she searched left and right, just ahead where the lone corpse of Goro would await her, she eventually found it. A black mass darker than even the shadows that surrounded it, like a void, or black hole.

It wanted her to see it.

One turn, she'd find herself in the chamber where Quan Chi held office with his generals and the Naknada that overlooked the bottom of the pit beneath the bloody bridge. The other a small twisting, winding cavern that ended in small prison cells that were protected by flames long since ceased when the island's former owner was captured and long forgotten.

Of course, she realized, this is where the shadow would take her.

The empty confines of a hollow world forgotten and barely used if only to remind the dead that the living still control it, she followed the shadow in. The pits where flames once spat against the charged stone walls now dead and dry. She travelled past one cell, so old the bars nearly rotted away, but the small carving that would hold the prisoner in was empty.

The next also empty, and the next, and then a fork in the path. One would lead to where the deadliest of enemies would be held behind the flames and bars, and the other where no man could go past, as the flames would encase them. With no flames, she checked the first, but the shadow had faded.

"Do you hear me?" A voice bounced off the curvature of the tunnel.

"Yes." Skarlet caught the voice and reached out with her own.

Her steps were slower, her eyes narrowed and focused to find the source. This was no longer a voice in her head and the shadow no longer played tricks with her. The final cell within the cavern locked and cleaned. This, though old and rusted, had been somewhat maintained and if she paid attention to the ground beneath her, she would have realized the footsteps she erased with her own.

"Do you see me?" The voice, more brittle in person and almost faded like a ghost that it sounded in her head had reached out from the back of the prison cell.

She closed the gap between herself and the bars, but dared not touch them, she had no clue who was behind them until the voice clicked inside her head, not with another vowel, but who it belonged to.

Withered and old, his body near death as it laid like sticks against the cave wall, she finally saw him and her blood curdled at the sight. His corpse like body worn out against the floor of the cave cell, Shang Tsung watched the horror and the anger play out in her eyes as she recognized him.

"Skarlet, my old enemy." He reached for her with his voice and then coughed.

"Shang Tsung. You're still alive?" She reached out with the hand that had not bathed in the blood of her injury and leaned in to see him better for he hid in the shadows like a cowered cur.

"Only by the grace of a few souls left within me." He replied, and she believed it. He looked older than dirt, and worse than death.

"Then I will kill you and finally see vengeance for what you've done me." It all flooded back. The memories of this cruel man having torn her body and blood to create the creature known as Mileena in her image and then to so boldly gift Skarlet the only blood she could hold as her own, he took away. The rape of her mind and the control he took from her as he used her like one of his many experiments in the flesh pits that used to be bear the screams of victims like her in these very caves, she watched the memories flood away as anger and blood boiled over inside her. She was about to reach for the bars with her other hand, the bloodied hand dried of her own essence but he stopped her, almost pleaded.

"I need you." He continued, "I have been the voice inside of her your head, and the vision you have seen to this moment."

"Why?" She was going to kill him anyway, why not find out the answer to this foolish charade and spit it back in his face?

"To save your life." He caught her in her throat, then added, "Quan Chi is going to kill us all. No, not just me and you, Kotal Kahn, the Half-God Prince of Edenia, and Raiden with his allies." After a cough and a choke, and a moment of pause as what little life he held onto tried its best to escape, he spoke, "he means to end time as we know it."

She couldn't grasp this. Shang Tsung was a manipulator and this moment she knew he was doing just that, but to what end?

Before she could respond a green light sparked like an ember in the distance and she felt the cold rush of the dead reach out for her.

She looked out for the eyes of the undead entities known as Ermac race toward her in a flash of green energy. No blood would let her escape this, and no words would stall the entity.


	93. 93 Liu Kang

He could see the sundown of a blank stare through the eyes of everyone in the room. Cracked, uncertain, and doubtful, all reflections that clawed at the walls of his own heart. All but one stared back, Raiden, arms folded in his cloak and head down in a pensive moment waited as the stale breath of the room responded to the war cry of Liu Kang.

"I'm going to challenge Quan Chi to Mortal Kombat, end all of this." He had declared.

What little room they had, he was surrounded by the contestants of the twisted ritual of Quan Chi's corrupt tournament. Ahead of him, Nightwolf and Raiden, but the group grew outward from them, seeming day by day with Sub-Zero, Smoke, Johnny Cage, Sonya, Kung Lao, Jax and yet day by day it dwindled.

"Look into your heart, Liu Kang, do you really think you're ready for this." Raiden pondered beneath that pensive posture.

"You are not ready, you are not even whole." Nightwolf added.

"What does that even mean?" Sonya couldn't grasp it.

"The sorcerer will kill you. You find yourself, undo what has been done to your soul." Nightwolf stepped forward into the circle, eyes on him, "you cannot win."

"He's right, Liu Kang," Sub-Zero chimed in, "Quan Chi is corrupt, and he will not fight fair. If you are absolutely certain of yourself, he will take advantage of that."

"How do I find out what happened? How do I find myself?" Liu Kang looked to Raiden, but Nightwolf replied.

"Only you can know yourself and only you can repair your spirit, but there are ways to help."

"He's right." Raiden finally spoke up, eyes on Liu. "Liu Kang, I have faith in you as I do of everyone in this room, but no one in this room is capable of defeating Quan Chi alone."

"There is a ritual my people perform to walk through the spirit realm, there you may find answers." Nightwolf warned, "but there, you may also lose yourself completely."

"What do I do?" Liu Kang was ready, he needed to be. Himself as the offering, he demanded knowledge.

"You can not do this alone." Raiden warned.

"No, you must have someone to tether you to the real world." Nightwolf then eyed those around him, but none spoke up. "Someone must risk themselves to keep Liu Kang grounded, or we will lose another to this sorcerer."

"And another," Sub-Zero added, "until this false tournament is revealed to be the quiet massacre it really is under Quan Chi."

"I'll do it." Johnny Cage stepped in.

"Perfect." Raiden spoke under his breath, a curve of content tucked against the corner of his mouth.

"So be it." Nightwolf adjourned the meeting.

When the room had cleared, Liu Kang rested on the makeshift bed of wood and the thinnest fabric. The least comfortable he had ever been to match the uncertainty of the situation. Johnny Cage sat beside him on a stool as Nightwolf slowly began to hum and chant. Raiden stood at the doorway, arms folded, hat downcast and eyes closed to absorb the energy of the room.

Neither Earth Realmers could understand the ritual, the noises that grew from Nightwold no doubt the language of his tribe, both Liu Kang and Johnny Cage were ignorant to, but they waited with deep breaths for anything to happen.

Broken. Johnny Cage began to think about how he had reached this point. The meeting with his manager, and if that person wasn't Quan Chi the whole time. Everything since, the downward spiral and the shattering of his world all the machinations of one person with the goal of destroying him from within. Only now had he begun to piece those broken remains together.

He understood what Liu Kang must have felt, even if Liu could not recognize it.

Silence fell over the room.

Nightwolf's mouth moved, but neither Liu nor Cage could hear him.

"Do you think it's working?" Cage asked and When Liu tilted his head to scold him for his interruption, Johnny wasn't there.

The room was empty, and the silence thickened until even his own heartbeat fell on deaf ears. One leg at a time he cautiously pulled himself from the discomfort of the bed and pushed up to his feet. Not creek of the boards, no breath from his lips.

"You must find your spirit." Johnny Cage's voice filled his ears like a whisper, as if in imitation of Nightwolf. "Your guide will find you and tell you what you must do."

"How will I know what it is?" Liu wondered, but the answer never came.

"Do not lose yourself, Liu Kang." Raiden's voice cracked though the veil of darkness that began to flood into the room.

Raiden's voice, the sound, the hiss-like breath and wisdom in each inflection tugged him into a bright sunny Earth. He looked around to find children running, men all around in the adornments of the monks of the White Lotus. All marched toward a single point and followed Liu Kang as though he had just arrived to save them from something, or someone.

He followed them to a narrow path beyond the Temple of Light. Bowls of incense, monks stood in prayer and candles lit around and alter where three of the Shaolin sat in judgement of Liu Kang.

He looked down, tan pants, brown boots, black jacket and the air around them caked in a slight red haze. The temple beyond the alter was white and curved like an arch toward the sky with many windows and adornments the lower each level went. He looked further, cloth made covered the cracks between the walls and monks blocked every entry way but the exit.

"Why have you come back?" A cold voice echoed from the monks at the alter.

Words forced from his lips, unable to form them, unable to break them. As though written to speak, he let it go.

"I want to represent the Order of Light at the tournament!"

"For what reason?"

"The man who killed my brother will be there."

"That cannot be your only reason for going, or you will fail."

"Oh, yes, I forgot. We're fighting for the fate of the world!" Liu Kang cast out his hollow maw, unable to stop the words.

"That's why you left the temple and ran away, isn't it?" Raiden's voice filled the temple grounds. All of the monks lowered to bow before the God as his shadow cast behind one of the cloth walls. "The great tournament was too much responsibility, but vengeance? That's so much simpler."

The man before him, the dark grey robes, the conical hat, all of it appeared to him as Raiden, but something was off. It gave him pause and the words no longer forced themselves through him.

The eyes of the man before him still pierced through Liu Kang, but the face was wrong.

"This is not your god of thunder and lightning, he's just a beggar!" He broke the spell of words and the imposter stood in posture, paused, eyes on Liu Kang.

"So, you're going to win the tournament?" Raiden's voice spoke to him, but he man stood still, his lips unmoving, his eyes still as death.

"Yes!" Liu Kang spat.

"Show me how."

Liu Kang rushed him, his chest felt as though hands should stop him, but he moved freely and the being the others knew as Raiden tossed him effortless onto the stone ground, onto his back, and his eyes lit with lightning.

He looked up to the sky, the cloudless blue gazed back down at him. Around him, bamboo shoots with red flags adorned with gold Chinese symbols waved in the light wind.

"If you won't fight with all of your heart, there is no hope." A female voice pulled him up.

"What do you care?" Liu shot back, his body contorted and held beneath her.

He countered her, pushed her off. She spun over and returned to a defensive stance. He finally got a view of her as a man, older, and bitter shouted at her from his bamboo throne behind them.

He looked back to find a man adorned the attire of the Lin Kuei. His face resembled that of Kuai Liang, though a red scar now etched itself down his right eye.

"Kahn want's you to go after her."

"Listen, without Kitana it's over, we've lost." Liu Kang urged.

"What's happened here should prove you alone are not ready for what's ahead." Sub-Zero met his words with a calm, but stern demeanor. He could feel the wavering in Liu Kang, and his eyes, though cold, Liu could see were much wiser beyond his youthful appearance.

Liu Kang understood. He wasn't sure what he understood, but something about it connected in him.

"Raiden, what is wrong?" he looked down at his mentor's chest to find the amulet on the blue and white cloth had cracked. "Your amulet!"

"It is nothing, Liu Kang, the tournament begins."

Together they stood and watched the procession of monks in white and gold march together and kneel before old man stood at the alter of the island's courtyard. At his side the woman that had spoken him, referred to as Kitana, and the other of darker skin adorned in a green attire of the same style as Kitana. Jade.

Their eyes cast upon him like stone, the old man stared bewildered and soon he realized that all eyes were on him. Raiden, Nightwolf, the Lin Kuei, Sonya, all but Johnny Cage.

"What's going on?" Liu Kang looked around, unable to understand. He checked his hands, his outfit, his hair, everything but they all stood and stared.

Cage, his deep, dark shades an impasse between the eyes Kang fought to look into, and the cool suave suit he wore clean and pressed unlike the unimpressive Cage he knew, approached him.

"You think you know. Who you are. What's to come." His voice echoed as Liu Kang slowly stepped back, "you have no idea."

The room was empty, dark, and the red haze of the sun shunned from the inside, barely a slit on the blades of thick blinds. A darker shadow cut like a crease across the room and the air filled with the must of poverty. Liu Kang was back in his apartment in the stacks, the high towers of nothingness hidden within the dissonance of Hong Kong.

The shadow like a mirror reflected the same side of the room back at him in only a slight lighter shade. No bed to relax on, no stand or television, nor light to illuminate. He sat in the corner of the darkest recess of the room his thoughts barely collected like tacks on the floor to stick ideas into him of what might happen, unable to ever really pin down and answer.

_Raiden did this._

The name repeated in his voice and soon coated the walls like dust, caked with anger and bitterness. Liu couldn't understand why, only the darkness of flesh, the grey tone and the cracked lines that he mistook for veins were his only glimmer of light. His body was like the ash of a volcano that had just erupted and covered itself all over again, with the burning embers desperately lit beneath.

"What can be done? The past is the past, is it not?" Liu Kang stared up into radiant eyes of Kronika as the world around him became illuminated with the blinking eyes of the cosmos and the swirl of the cogs of fate.

"It need not be," She swiftly lifted toward a large glass orb that worked like an hourglass, the sands of time slowly spiral into the empty glass beneath. "I intend to wind time back to its beginning and restart history." She added, her eyes sought Liu Kong's, "but even with my vast power, I cannot create this New Era alone."

Beside him, where Kitana should stand, Johnny Cage watched on.

"How will this new era be different?" He pondered behind those thick shades.

"In many ways," she turned to Johnny, then to Liu, "but most importantly, there will be no Raiden."

Liu Kang turned to Johnny Cage, the flesh of his friend clean and lively, human and vastly different than his caked in ash hues and cracked like the ground ready to erupt.

"You weren't here before." He realized suddenly and searched for Kitana.

"I'm good at filling many roles, I'm an actor you know." Cage shrugged it off.

"I'm surprised you even remember this moment." Kronika lowered herself before them and reached out to touch Liu Kang, but he recoiled. "You failed to bring about the New Era."

"Kitana and I created many New Eras, none of them worked." He explained, "no matter how much you toy with time, fate is always the same."

"Yes, some things must always come to pass, in some way or another." She turned to Cage, "but you are still a revenant Liu kang, and Johnny Cage is here before me."

"I'm just holding down the fort." Cage mocked.

_Still a revenant?_

The legions of the undead, the demons and creatures born of the Netherrealm surrounded Raiden, his piercing red lightning scattered like veins through them as he and Kitana watched on from their castle.

"Excuse me." A voice interrupted.

Kitana and Liu Kang turned to find a finely suited business man, bald with sunken features hold up two slices of American cheese.

He shook it off and returned to the scene that played out before them. The pyramid of Argus decorated with the bodies of warriors that have torn at the realms for a millennia. At the first step, Raiden climbed slowly, his red eyes bright with rage as Liu Kang pulled the shackles of chains close to his decayed corpse and began to swing them in preparation.

"You did this to yourself, Liu Kang." Raiden could hear the words echoed off the old apartment walls. His hands clenched and curled to form a ball of lightning between them. The hot energy grew and the air crackled with electricity.

Unable to speak, his jaw torn from his corpse's skull, Liu Kang backed slowly up to the highest plateau, the chains a barrier between he and the Thunder God as they swung in large arcs around him.

"He wants to ask what you mean by that." Johnny Cage, his back split, and eyes glossed over in Raiden's pathos stared up into the swirling fire of the sky that was Blaze's energy and spoke for Liu Kang.

Raiden glanced down at the corpse of the Earth Realmer, then back to Liu Kang.

"I do not know what you did, but you are not who you should be in this timeline."

"I did only what I had to in order to survive Kotal Kahn's war." Cage responded for him.

"Yes, Kitana, Goro, myself all of us locked in the high chamber in expectation that Kotal Kahn and Quan Chi would kill or imprison us."

"Before then."

Raiden stopped. He gathered his memories of the events that lead to that moment. Kitana held Liu Kang as the Fire God created by Raiden unleashed his power back into the Thunder God with Kitana, but he couldn't remember.

"Enlighten me." Raiden reached out.

Shang Tsung, young, clad in black cloth and leather gazed up at the ceiling as the dragon emblem emboldened him to fight Liu Kang in the tournament. Kitana, Johnny Cage and Sonya to the far side all only able to watch.

Lui Kang, eyed the fire torches around them, the emblem of metal and stone beneath them and met gaze with Shang Tsung to watch as the world around them shifted into the courtyard and Shang Tsung's flesh aged, his clothing changed to a more lavish red and gold attire.

The sands of the arena baked in the Outworld heat, Raiden passed by Liu Kang and Shang Tsung. Raiden and Kitana's relationship had intensely soured since their last turning of time and despite how desperate Raiden was to patch it, the Kahnum of Outworld refused.

Liu Kang however, took this moment to meet with Shang Tsung in private.

"Fire God." Shang Tsung greeted him, eyes weary and suspicious of the deity before him.

"Shang Tsung." Liu Kang returned the gesture with the slightest of nods.

Shang Tsung was suspended over a stone table as Ermac pulled soul after soul from him under Quan Chi's watchful eye. Liu Kang watched beside Quan Chi, his flesh ashen, and his veins cracked and cackled with embers of fire and rage.

"What are you doing to him?" Liu Kang pondered, a glance cast to Quan Chi.

"Torturing him." Quan Chi stepped forth toward the two as the process continued with scream after scream from Shang Tsung. "Take this time to suffer every soul you've taken, old friend. Soon all of it will end."

"You cannot kill me." Shang Tsung couldn't breath, but the words needed to spill like blood from his lips. One last spit before the temptation to end him filled Ermac.

"I don't want to kill you. I want to end it, everything." Quan Chi revealed, "existence as we know it." Ermac reached down toward Shang Tsung's chest, the undead corpse clenched for the sorcerer's heart. "Somewhere inside you is the answer I need to do it."

"Do you know of Kronika?" Liu Kang asked, so passively, the screams of the sorcerer barely an inconvenience to him. "She meant to create the New Era."

"Yes, but she did not show me everything. Only a glimpse of what she managed to perform up to that point."

"How far?"

"She had not yet captured you in the Fire Garden."

"Then how do you know about it?" Liu Kang's eyes narrowed, but his voice pulled from Shang Tsung and reached up to Ermac.

"Because we can see it." Ermac echoed inside this one.

"How do you know?" Liu Kang turned to Shang Tsung. "Ermac, pull it from him, I need to know. Kill him if you must!"

"That's the Liu Kang Kronika promised me." Quan Chi approved.

As the fires licked at the heat around them from the pit Nightwolf had sat with Liu Kang upon, the two waited before the words must fall from their maws. The silence a decadent display as neither desired to be the first to reveal their secrets.

The desert was a deep dissonance of sand and rot that stretched for miles and miles. How these two souls managed to find one another amongst a rogue fire was beyond their comprehension, but the wolf was first to speak.

"You think you're ready Liu Kang, but if you were, would Kitana have been captured?" Nightwolf spat.

Liu Kang looked back at the scene of the two sat before the flames. His human form sat there with Nightwolf, silent.

"I know what's to come." Liu revealed, but admitted "but who I am, I am not yet sure."

"In order to know who you are, you must find your animal spirit. It will guide you back to your true self." Nightwolf stood from the fires, from the human form of Liu Kang that sat and stared blankly into the abyss of the flames. He address the revenant only. "We are here, Liu, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Sonya, Sub-Zero, all of us here to guide you, but you are the only one that can find yourself in all of this."

"I know I know where to start, but not how to get there." he pointed back, where Quan Chi watched as Shang Tsung was tortured beneath the entity known as Ermac.

"That is not your memory, but Shang Tsung's."

"How did it get inside me?"

"How did you get inside him?"

"Where do I find him?"

"Find your animal spirit, feel the strength of your animality, and you will know where."

"Can you hold these?" Cage loaded his suitcases into Liu Kong's hands and then approached the sitting corpse of Goro, the half dragon Shokan.

Liu Kang dropped the luggage and looked around. The stale dead air of Goro's lair, the dust and unsettling smell of decay overtook him.

"I liked it when I beat him better." Cage turned to Liu. "Broke my sunglasses, so I broke his everything."

"That's not how he died." Liu Kang returned, the memory of the blood that spilled from Goro's throat filled him.

"Does it matter? Since Kronika's time warp we've all died a million different deaths."

"What are we doing here?"

"Oh, Shang Tsung's in here. I saw him a night or so ago. He's caged up in one of the tunnels by the entrance."

"Let's go." Kang grabbed his guide and the two traced the caverns and empty halls of the lair unaware of the green energy that followed close behind in the tiny crags and crags of stone and earth.

By the entrance two paths split the way, one Cage moved down and the other was blocked by Kitana.

"Go, Liu Kang." She urged. "I promised you we'd meet in this timeline, but not like this."

The entrance, a wide cavern toward a wooden pulley was blocked by a grey suited man. Two slices of cheese tucked upon his bald head.

"I wear the cheese, it does not wear me."

"Here." Cage pointed to the cell he had encountered the ancient sorcerer. "There were two hot chicks behind me, got me to release them. I didn't get a good look at them though."

"Shang Tsung?" Liu Kang reached for the bars and peered into the blackness.

They waited for any sound to greet them, but nothing escaped the shadow of the prison cell.

"He's waiting." A voice met them from down the curvature of the Earth. Liu Kang and Johnny Cage leaned to look as a glisten of red light turned the corner. Skarlet, the blood witch met them, an orb of blood formed in the palms of her hands. "For me."

"This is getting a little too complicated, and pretty hot." Cage smirked.

"Foolish child." Skarlet snapped, then to Liu Kang she spoke, "he's got something I need too."

"What is it?" Liu Kang looked back into the shadow.

The shadows themselves hid as a green energy lifted from the dust of the earth and the form of Ermac broke between Skarlet and Liu Kang.

"I don't know." She backed away until Ermac reached out for her throat. "You need to find him!"

"There's too much to do. How do I find him and my animality? How do I stop Quan Chi and save the realms, and myself?" Liu Kang whipped to Johnny Cage.

"I'm just an actor."

In the end, as the darkness buried them within the caverns of the lair, Liu Kang felt his guide reach out and pull him by the wrist until his eyes opened.

"What did you find?" Sonya asked, the first to break the silence.

"Only questions." Defeated, Liu Kang leaned up to find Nightwolf and Raiden look back at him.

Raiden, in all his infinite wisdom smiled down at Liu Kang, arms folded in his robes and eyes cackling with electricity.

"All the best answers come in the form of a question. It's only a matter of how you choose to answer them."


	94. 94 Rain

Rain burst awake at the sound of a door slam. He reached beside him to find the warm body of Kia, but the cold eyes of Tanya glared back at him as she stood at the foot of the bad, arms folded, mouth twisted.

"Pathetic little man child, you've never had to make a single difficult choice in your life, have you?" She spat down at him with no remorse.

Caught off guard, he lifted the blanket to find himself still bare, much like Kia beside him and looked about. It was near dusk, the tournament matches would be coming to close for Kotal Kahn in the courtyard, so why was he being cast down from the fires of hell by this Edenian woman?

"Did you know Kitana was free?" That got his attention.

He pushed himself over the edge of the bed and scoured for the loose breeches, as if Tanya had thought him modest.

"I'm just being told this now?" He wanted to strike her, but she struck first.

"I found out just now, but someone as high and mighty as the self proclaimed Prince of Edenia, should have known."

"How could I have?" His arms threw wide and Tanya lead his gaze to the bed and twisted her lips.

"Of course you wouldn't."

"Where is the usurper?" He crossed the distance to the only carved window in the chamber, but it gave no good view of the grounds to make any sort of search effort.

"Usurper? That's rich. She has the true claim to the throne of Edenia if her father dies."

"That's right," Kia chimed in.

"My mother told me my father was royalty beyond any of the kings of Edenia would ever know. I am that throne."

"Still having your mother dictate your life?" Tanya approached, turned him with cold sharp claws for nails and stared straight through him, "half-cocked, half-prince, marrying a mud-blood bitch you don't even love because you thought it was going to get you the throne of an entire realm. I'm from Edenia too, I'm more a man than you."

He pushed, she pulled closer and in that moment at their eyes met she wanted to slit her throat, but knew she could cut him too. She was cold, manipulative, and calculating. He knew this, perhaps why he chose to bed Kia instead, but it clicked in him that she meant to push him in this moment, to light some fire under him, but if Kitana was truly free, Quan Chi would have known. Kotal Kahn would have known.

"What else aren't you telling me?" He yearned for the cold bitter truth, let her finally speak against his crumbled fortress.

"Skarlet is not your ally."

"This again?" The walls pulled themselves back up as he pushed away for the door. "I may not love her like a queen, but she's the best I've got to take that throne."

"You think you can trust her, but she's not loyal to you, not loyal to Edenia. She'll turn on you when its her life on the line against yours. Just like you would do to her."

"I would never."

He closed the door, pulled himself from the tension of the room and waited a moment, but no words were spoken, no objects thrown, no tension released. Just silence, like they were nothing but a shadow to him, a cold reflection that followed at his heels with every fear he had that he hoped would never realize.

Beyond the spires the courtyard waited for him. Where could she be? The heir to the throne and the thorn in his side now stuck deeper and deeper into him.

There was a odd turn of corners on the island that went from a bridge that wrapped around the mountain grave of the Kytinn and gave the best view of the pits of death. It turned into a crumbled stone walkway that curled around gnarled trees unkempt and as wild as the forbidden forest until you were forced to look upon a once golden Naknadan shrine.

Such lowly creatures to have a shrine of their own and yet didn't even know what bloodline his father held to make him so royal to Edenia.

Where to start?

As he gazed upon the aged statue, there was no place he could think of. Kitana, if known by Quan Chi to be free, would remain as hidden as possible, if not using the aid of Raiden to keep in the shadowss. He would have to go to Quan Chi to get the answer.

"Quan Chi will kill you." A voice broke the silence and turned him round to see who crept in the waning light.

"Scorpion. Specter, or are you a revenant of Quan Chi's?" He scrutinized the Shirai Ryu spirit and noticed a hand ready on the hilt of the specter's katana.

"I am vengeance. Only." Scorpion held his position and watched the Edenian bare chested, purple breeches only approach slow and arrogant.

"Take me to your master, slave. I will have words with the sorcerer." Rain had already forgotten the first words Scorpion spoke, so they were repeated.

"He sent me to kill you." The blade began to slide from the sheath.

"Now why would he want that? To piss of Kotal Kahn? Skarlet?"

"He is torturing the witch as we speak." Scorpion held his blade in place, and gauged the temperature of the mad prince.

Rain stepped back and really focused on the white eyes that stared back at him. Without pupils it was hard to really tell who he was looking at, and the intentions behind them. If the eyes were the window to the soul, what happens when the soul is corrupted and the window is closed?

"What for?" He waited, but the silence was too long. "Tell me, freak!"

"Betrayal." Those sinister eyes narrowed, and the hand clenched the yellow hilt.

Rain was unarmed. On an island surrounded by water, the flame of the spirit would burn him before they he could summon a drop, or even a flash of lightning. He stood back in neutral stance and thought how a king might act.

"Take me to him." Rain added, "I want proof."

He didn't realize the other option on the table, as the blade slid from its confines and the point had been aimed at eye level. Scorpion was the master of his craft and Rain unarmed. That other option was Scorpion wouldn't care what Rain wanted.

The specter charged.

In a flash of fire Rain was thrown to the ground beneath Quan Chi's feet. He stared up at the ceiling of a cave, and beyond the sorcerer was the widest view of the pits.  
The scene before him played out in Quan Chi's personal chamber where he would scheme and torture, and watch those that had fallen from the bridge bleed out like pigs to the slaughter.

Normally there would be a long table for him to sit at, a desk for an office if you will covered with a map, stone emblems and vials, concoctions, all the sort a sorcerer would desire, but tonight there was none of that. Just bare wood and beyond that where the meeting table would rest with its chairs all aligned in a row with one another, gone.

Rain could see Skarlet had been tied to the stalagmites above them and each foot chained in place. Her face was to him, but he could not see it with the entity known as Ermac between them, and a Naknada known as Kollector before him. He could only see the chains and hear the pain as the six armed beast struck her again and again.

Rain was quick to his feet and shoved around the desk to grasp at Quan Chi.

"What is the meaning of this?" He clenched tight and balled the clothing at Quan Chi's neckline.

"The punishment for betrayal must be doled out." Quan Chi ignored the threat, motioned for Scorpion to pull Rain back and then watched. Eyes never strayed from the squirm and rustle of the chains.

"I'll have your guts for garters!" He tried to free himself from the specter, but the spirit's grasp was greater than his will for freedom. "What betrayal?"

Finally, Quan Chi looked to him.

Those eyes were as cold as Tanya's, but there was pleasure in those darkened pupils.

"Helping the enemy." Quan Chi made no discernment who.

"You think Kotal Kahn will stand for this? He will kill you!" Rain spat, but he fight to escape had died in Scorpions grasp.

"I told him I had her. He'll be here soon to stop me." Quan Chi returned to watch Skarlet's chains. "He won't."

Ermac moved, finally he could see the scene in its full brutality. The large beast struck with its strongest fists, the others would hold her in place. He could catch glimpses of her eyes toward him when her skull was bashed to and fro and the chains yanked back and forth when those hands switched places.

Any moment he knew Kotal Kahn would burst through the entrance and the fight would begin for Skarlet's freedom. The tournament would end with Quan Chi's skull crushed beneath their feet, as he struggled to free himself again, and failed again, each moment passed and no Kotal Kahn.

"This isn't going to go the way you think." Scorpion whispered.

He stopped. His body still. His focus now on the specter that held him.

There were no words left for the spirit to speak. Once the door finally broke and the long cavernous tunnel toward the room clanked with the sound of Kotal Kahn's armor and the drag of his heft weapon ready to swing, Rain prepared itself for action.

The bellow of an angry Kahn filled the room and the charge of a beast rocked Kollector from from his pillar of strength above a beaten prisoner.

Kotal Kahn took a swing at the six armed creature, but Ermac was vigilant, always in the way.

"You will answer for this, Quan Chi!" Kotal Kahn aimed his heavy weapon straight toward the sorcerer, his back to Skarlet to protect her from the minions.

Thinner, wiry, and older looking, Quan Chi almost seemed like a withered old man in comparison to Kotal Kahn, but they both knew that was not the case. His mind greater, and his magic greatest of all. Unmoved from his position, Quan Chi matched Kotal Kahn's vocal projection, but before a word could finish, the grasp Scorpion had somehow slipped and the Edenian was free to lunge forth.

That withered sorcerer was quick to dodge the first strike. Rain was on his back before he could realize that he had not connected with Quan Chi at all.

"Do not lift a finger against me, Ko'atal." Quan Chi ordered.

He had already moved past Rain as Ermac took control of the Edenian'd body and held him in place on the table. Rain could only watch and hope that Kotal Kahn would betray Quan Chi as well.

"Free my general and I won't kill you where you stand." Kotal Kahn shot back, his hand on Skarlet, what effort she could make to move slumped against him.

"You will do nothing to me, Ko'atal." Quan Chi, in a voice Rain thought was arrogance, spoke over the Kahn of Outworld. "I have the only thing you want in the world."

"Empty promises will get you no where." Did he hear the Kahn's voice crack, or was that the chains?

After a long pause, Rain, unable to see Quan Chi behind him, began to feel the aura that must have summoned behind him. A cold breath, a radiant touch. Something was in Quan Chi's grasp that he could not understand, could not see, but saw the wilting of a Kahn before it.

"I do not lie, and you have yet to earn this," he added, "so you will instead beat the answers out of her."

Freed from Ermac's hold, Rain ignored Quan Chi. There was no defeating the man in his strongest moment. Could he at least reach Kotal Kahn?

He approached, but the Kahn refused to let him near Skarlet, as though Rain was Kollector or Ermac.

"We can do this together." He pressed further, "we have served loyally at your side for three hundred years! Is that not important to you?"

There was no answer. The heavy steel in Kotal Kahn's hand dropped. His grasp on Skarlet changed from her body to the chains.

He watched as the Kahn that held Outworld by its throat and staved off both Shao Kahn and Kitana Kahn now bent at the knee of a pathetic sorcerer. Whatever Quan Chi held over his had, this wasn't the moment to challenge it.

"Pick up the whip." Quan Chi ordered and the Kahn obeyed.

Rain ignored, he watched Skarlet's betrayal in her eyes, not of her against them, but the Kahn's. He was invisible in this moment, this strange pathetic moment where he knew that any action would be his death.

Was this how Kitana felt when all of Kotal Kahn's forced gathered around her and forced her to bend at the knee?

"This tournament," he turned to Quan Chi, "is over."

"What's important to you?" Kotal Kahn shot back. "Your blood, or hers?"

All eyes on Rain.

He could even feel the blank stare of Scorpion upon him perhaps harshest of all.

Could he make that decision?

Was this the moment to make decisions?

The only one he could make was to leave.


	95. 95 Liu Kang

Reality, the discordant nature of life as we know it is nothing more than the broken chains of fabricated memories tested over the fabric of time. Sometimes it holds as the weight on each side that pulls it apart is too weak to tear the chains link from link, but most times, the glitch of the real world hisses and slithers down the metal coil of spacetime link by link and poisons the world we know, with the world we desire, or others.

He wasn't sure what to believe, or what he wanted to believe. The violation of the visions that plagued his mind and the thoughts that twisted like burning cigarettes out of the mouths of vacant faces scratched at the lines that creased Liu Kang's. Raiden, Sub-Zero, and Nightwolf stared back at him as he awoke from the trance induced by the true American.

"Tell me something of what you've seen, Liu Kang." Raiden pressed, his eyes curious and cast through those of Liu as though the window to the soul could peer in and find the hidden remains of that trance spill out before the God's feet.

"I do not know. I saw many things I can't explain, many versions of me, of events aren't real." Dejected, he turned to Nightwolf, "but no answers to how we deal with Quan Chi."

"The Great Spirit shows us many things, much of it we cannot understand, but yet we begin to piece by piece as time goes by, when it is time to." Nightwolf responded, his words no better comfort for Liu Kang.

Frustrated he leapt from his skin through his voice, "but we need it now! That was useless then!"

"Useless? Not at all, but an inconvenient mystery, certainly." Raiden added, "what do you remember?"

"It's hard to piece it together, but there were different versions of myself, my skin was almost grey, dead, I think. I had a feeling of betrayal in the pit of my stomach for you," he stared blankly into the whites of Raiden's eyes, "like you had done this to me. All of it."

"There's a lot you don't know, about the past, about what brought us to this moment." He continued as his hands curled back beneath the grey weathered robes, recoiled from Liu Kang cold stare. "There have been many timelines before this, versions of reality that have been tested by a Titan known as Kronika."

"What does any of that mean?" Liu couldn't grasp it, as hard as he could. The visions that swirled like locusts in his mind and chewed away at the fabric of his skull gnawed too loudly for him to hear Raiden.

"My tribe has felt this before, there have been many Nightwolf, and I don't mean those that came before me, but me alone." He turned to Raiden, "we have felt them, each of them, as their spirits become one with The Great Spirit."

"Yes," Raiden addressed it with a nod, but his focus was to Liu, "before this, in order to reach this moment in time, I merged my essence with you and for a time you were a God too, Liu Kang."

"Then why aren't I now? How did you end up like this? Too many questions while people are dying out there! Why even bother?" Liu pushed passed them, "I'm going to find Sonya and Cage, and we're leaving."

"There is no escape." Nightwolf held him with his voice.

"This island is between realms. Not quite on Earth, but not entire in Outworld." Raiden explained. "The only escape is if Quan Chi lets you, or death."

"Then what do we do?" Defeated, frustrated, he stared back at Raiden with a strange sense of contempt he had only felt as that darkened entity within the trance. The creature with his face with skin like ash and cracked lava. "This is all your fault then!"

Raiden lowered the brim of his conical hat and his voice hissed like the low rumble of thunder that built over time.

"I don't think so." He stared back and could feel the revenant behind the flesh of Liu Kang. "You are the reason we are all here. Somehow you split your soul and the worse version of you survived."

"How?" Nightwolf stared, he could see the Liu Kang for what he was, the turmoil of his soul, and the bitter boiling in his gut that echoed from his crude tone as he spat back at Raiden.

"I don't care! We need to focus on right now! We need to get of this damn island! I don't care what you say anymore." Liu shot back at Raiden and swung the ancient wooden door wide open to find Sonya and Johnny Cage outside.

When it closed, Sub-Zero stepped forward. He remained silent, with little to say and little to do regarding the visions, but his curiosity had peaked.

"We must unite if we're to defeat Quan Chi." He urged the thought into their minds, but they already knew.

"Liu Kang is the answer to all of this, but we must find his human spirit." Raiden added, a grim weight in his voice as he turned to Nightwolf, "I am the reason the revenant existed at all, but when I merged the two souls of Liu Kang together, I did not expect this."

"As I had mentioned," Nightwolf explained, "The Great Spirit is connected to everything, the Earth, Time, Space, the spirit world. I have felt my spirits before, though never have I been able to understand it."

"What are you saying?" Sub-Zero was lost, and Raiden appeared to be as well.

"You can merge two people together, and even though they may look the same, that does not mean they are the same spirit. Humans are not like Gods, Lord Raiden."

"You're right. The laws of reality work differently to the Gods, and I should have consulted with Fujin before this tournament." He snickered, a slight hiss under his breath. "Perhaps Liu Kang is right. We should focus on what's happening right now and not worry about the past."

Outside the door Liu Kang had pressed beyond Johnny and Sonya when they offered little help to his situation. Smoke as well unable to console him. What little he gathered from the visions that played like random scenes in his mind all gave him at least one objective he that was clear to him.

He must find Shang Tsung.


	96. 96 Skarlet

She could feel time, like a slow flame flicker away in a steady dance that died minute by minute every time her eyes would open.

Night, day, it didn't matter now. She would rot here for eternity if they let her. No, eventually Outworld's slow crawl of time would catch up to her and she'd wither and die, but for now, having been locked away in the darkness for hours, all she had to count on was time.

Skarlet, her arms bound in a straight jacket and her legs chained apart, stood in a most awkward position for her. No comfort, no rest, no means to bleed unless she bit her tongue, but even then no need, no one to kill, no way to escape. Could she bleed out and spill onto the other side, or would this cell be a magical tomb like that of Shang Tsungs?

Speaking of, as she thought of the withered sorcerer, his voice so frail still carried upon the ancient stone of the tunnel they were now buried in beneath the island.

"Can he you hear me?" He asked and his sound felt like the trickling of water down thin river stones, even though she knew he must be but a few turns away from her.

"Yes, sorcerer." She was shocked to hear that she could even speak, let alone that her voice was so beaten into the mud of her own existence after the torture from Kollector nearly ground her flesh to a sticky paste.

"Quan Chi tortured you?" He was as surprised by this as she.

He coughed back the words she almost spilled from the cold spit in her mouth and sucked in the stale grave air. She didn't know what to say.

What little voice she had, she spat it out for him. "Kotal Kahn."

"Skarlet," he reached out to her in his most human of tones, almost unrecognizable to hear her voice from him in such soft, almost caring manner, "my old enemy. You and I both suffered Shao Kahn–"

She finished his sentence with a softer, "but we survived."

"This too shall pass, but not you and I." If he could touch her, he'd reach for her shoulder and stare into her eyes knowingly, like some plan cruised down the smooth curvature of his arm into her, but he couldn't. She couldn't see his eyes, nor the intent behind them.

"No," she sucked the tear back in, the salt burned her eyes, and the words seared her soul, "it's over for us, old man." She paused with no response from the withered sorcerer, so she added, as if grasping for his company in this cold expanse of time, "it's been a long time coming."

Silence.

Nothing.

Nothing but her tormented thoughts.

"What makes you say that?" After a long pause he finally reached out again.

"I have been dead inside my parents destroyed me." She confessed, "and every thing I've done since has been to escape this feeling inside."

"How do you feel?" Shang Tsung's voice cast against the stalagmites, and hewn stone like a vacant shadow, as if it should be reflected back at him. She was just there to hear it.

"Empty." She choked on herself, "fucking nothing!"

Silence again but her own tears as they cut down her cheeks.

"I understand, Skarlet." His words reflected back at him, "you've lived your life latching to anything, and anyone that would help you forget about the person inside your head. The world you've fought desperately to escape, and yet everyone we've followed, every murder we've committed, every choice we've made has lead us to this."

"Trapped inside our minds." She finished his sentence again, a pattern she desperately wished to end with this.

It was a long moment of silence before either would speak again. Skarlet, unable to see beyond the rusted bars that held her, and the unable to move beyond the confines of her chains and bound cloth had begun to feel her body decline in strength, or perhaps the will to be strong. What little fight she had left in her she had started to lose one struggle at a time. The thoughts of escape dwindled and as hours passed the only struggle left was to escape herself.

"How have you survived?" She added, to help him understand, "this."

"I still have three souls left in me. All that keep me alive." He confessed, but she would she believe the old manipulator?

"I don't have one of those." She spat at herself.

"I know." This caught her by surprise and her lips stretched and twisted her cheek. He could almost feel the contempt burn the jagged hall of the prison tunnel and quickly changed who it should be cast toward. "Do you know why Kotal Kahn betrayed you?"

"Quan Chi has control over him." She understood that much, though not the depth of it.

"Not in the slightest." Shang Tsung contradicted her, "he betrayed you because the moment you no longer served a purpose to confirm his own delusions of himself, you became his enemy."

"What do you mean?"

"Kotal Kahn has lost his will to live. Only a thin string still pulls him through this world and he believes Quan Chi is the one that could take him to the end of it."

"How do you know all this?"

"Ermac tortured me for years. They talk too much."

"Much like you." She bit at him.

"And you." He bit back. "Troublesome girl, I never should have cloned you."

"No, you shouldn't have." Skarlet struggled again in her confines. She wanted to strangle him as those sour memories bit into her flesh.

"Did I strike a chord?" He could feel the tension and plucked at it like a string.

It was her turn to respond with silence.

Nothing.

He smiled in the darkness. He had struck her deep, but not well enough to bleed. Fire burned in her still. Some will to live and need to survive, even as she denied herself the desire to be strong.

There was hope in her yet.

"You're not the only one I've reached out to." He assured her, but nothing was returned.

A moment later he reached out again, but only to receive more silence.

"Take away Kotal Kahn, the army that followed your every order. Take away that scathing shit of a prince, Rain, and even Shao Kahn and the blood magic he began to instill into you one cruel lesson at a time and what do you have left?"

He was about to answer the question after a long pause as if she had given up on their conversation, but as he parted his parched lips to partake in his own query, she answered.

"Me." Skarlet's voice echoed through the tunnels.

"That's how I've survived all this time." He answered her previous question with his own. "This is not how it ends for us."

As if by a miracle, the a dance of tiny shadows tapped at the cold stone far from her cell and peered down the hall. It was light, true fire light and though she could not reach the prison bars to look past the rust and darkness, she could see the scant trace getting closer and closer.

This light was not that of Ermac's aura.

It was not the cold light of Quan Chi come to end them.

Shang Tsung's voice, a withered whisper in the wind of stale darkness lifted in temperance high on rocky hills. As it reached her ears, the dull whisper felt like roar in her heart.

"It has begun."


	97. 97 Liu Kang

The sun slowly raced over the horizon as Liu Kang entered the courtyard. To his left was the platform Kotal Kahn and Quan Chi would observe the fights from, and to his right a hall of champions and a series of more desolate courtyards with various themes, but most importantly, the lair of Goro. Each entrance and exit seemed to be covered by a single Naknada guard, but he was able to move freely until he reached the statues.

As his eyes turned to the statue of Raiden that had been decimated by age and discontent, the eyes of the guards turned toward him. One direction lead to a small path that extended out to the stone bridge and the greatest view of the wilted horizon sun he had ever witnessed, but the other side was the entrance wrought with ruin, and guarded by four of the Naknada.

He felt it somewhat late to have so many guards on an island of serial killers that had previously had their way with the island. Any secret den must have already been explored, any forbidden gem within the mystic's land shattered for the sake of some hidden agenda. So, with that in mind, he approached the entrance of the old Lair with the four around him as a barrier.

"You will not enter, Earth Realmer."

"I don't see anyone here capable of stopping me."

The towering monsters looked beyond the Earthrealm challenger at a figure at the statues and collectively pointed behind him.

"He can."

Liu Kang turned to find Scorpion stare him down from the distance, eyes white, hand on the chain at his hip.

Confused, he approached only until Scorpion's chain began to swing and stepped into an offensive posture.

"I have to get in there."

Nothing from the specter.

The true ninja lashed out like lightning with the spear and called out to Liu Kang. The chain covered a greater distance than Liu expected and had nearly pierced his shoulder had not he side stepped. The chain punctured between the ribs of a Naknada guard and the hive began to buzz.

The body was launched back toward Scorpion to be sliced in half in one clean swing of his Mugai Ryu. With blood now stained at his feet he lunged forward into a mist of flame to appear behind the Naknada as they erupt in chaos.

As quick as Scorpion was, the Naknada at each side of Liu Kang seemed as quick with such large steps to reach him before he could see where Scorpion had appeared. A roundhouse kick to the one at his right launched him into a punch from the one on his left, but a punch from a large six armed beast wasn't just one, but four.

He could feel his jaw swell already and ducked under the next swing from the second creature. When he lifted to counter the next attack, the two had already fallen.

Scorpion stood closer now, eyes white, narrowed, and sword aimed between Liu's eyes.

"Why did you help me?"

"You're going to help me kill Quan Chi." Scorpion tucked the sword back into its sheath, but he remained at a threatening distance to Liu.

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Liu Kang pressed against the offensive posture of Scorpion and spat.

"I need a distraction, but when the time comes, he is mine and mine alone."

"Then get me inside there, and I'll help you."

"It's already done."

Liu Kang threw his arms up to block the lunging specter, but no strike landed and neither lick of flame peeled away his skin at it engulfed the two. When he could see as the flames fell to Scorpion's feet, they were inside the lair.

No questions to answer, no words to speak. Scorpion pointed down the twisted tunnel he needed to travel and then dissipated as fast as he had arrived. He would be the chaos that would pull Quan Chi from hiding, but Liu Kang realized Scorpion had to know what was down this hall to have sought him out.

What was it though?

On the wall nearest to the opening before the wide chamber he was in became a long cave of prison cells was a lit torch. There were three in the room, nothing more than an antechamber that lead down a long hall to an effigy of Goro on an ancient throne.

Slowly he began to trace the jagged hall and ragged trail in. The prison cells were small, only big enough to fit a single person in, but they got bigger as he went deeper.

Stone became earth and the bars rusted more and more the further in he went until a voice caught him by surprise and he turned to find the scarlet witch that had slain Sonya friend in cold blood.

Skarlet. She was chained to the walls and held tight against herself in leather bonds fastened like a straight jacket. The aim was that she could not use her magic to escape, but her mouth remained uncovered.

"It's you." He pondered, her name did not quite come to him.

"And you." His didn't come to her either.

"I saw you in a vision. What were you doing?" He approached the cell and peered with the flame in upon her.

She grimaced then postured as best she could with a wry smile, "I'm not responsible for dream me."

"I suppose not." He turned away, the flame pulled from the bars and the light from her face. He had already given up on her, but two voices reached out, hers and another's.

"Wait!"

"Cease, Liu Kang, before you doom us all."

"Who is that?" He turned each way, but only empty cells and halls peered back at him, so he looked to Skarlet. "Who was that?"

"I am Shang Tsung." The voice beckoned him from deeper down the twisted tunnel.

"How do you know me?"

"I know you better than you know yourself."

He followed the voice, the echo chamber of the tunnel lured him to gaze up at the gnarled stalagmites, the jagged spikes of stone that jutted from every corner, and eventually a bigger opening with several cells suited for several prisoners to be held within them.

He looked in, the fire just barely burning enough to grant him visage of the old face that peered back. An ancient man in withered skin and tattered clothes barely held together by his own bones.

"You are Shang Tsung?"

"In the flesh."

"I saw you in my dream. That witch was trying to free you."

"I once thought it would be the lovely Sonya Blade to bring me freedom, but how clever it be my old nemeses."

"Why should I help you?"

"I have something of yours. Something you've been missing for five hundred years." A thin wiry grin stretched across the old wrinkled face and those eyes pierced through Liu Kang. "Now, let the witch out and she her blood will set us free."

He stared back. All of this so much to take in. The flame warmed them, and the bars he touched became to much to hold so he moved it away and stepped back. The bars behind him led to an open door where it seemed someone had escaped already.

"I must tell Raiden this." His first thought, but he shook it off. Still, Shang Tsung reached out quick with hand and voice.

"No, Liu Kang! Everything you need is already here, but not until you set me free." He added, "I'm your only way out of here."

He stared back into those eyes. Something about them felt as though he himself looked back. He could feel his own spirit burn, but the cold comfort of that withered old man yearned for him to part those bars and set him free.

To be a slave to other's passion, or make his own way?

Raiden had pulled him into this, this journey he had never asked for even after the White Lotus had tried to drag him unsuccessfully into Mortal Kombat. Now here, with little to no means of escape save for death, he realized there was no other choice but to accept this moment of chaos.

"You will help me, and all of my friends get off this island if I set you free!" He threatened, but he knew Shang Tsung held the power.

"Consider it done, my old friend."

That phrase, that intent behind those eyes, that smile. Everything about this old man know Liu Kang from flesh and bones to spirit. He knew nothing about him to say anything back, only the vision implanted by Nightwolf's trance. How does he know?

What does he know?

Back at the cell that held the blood witch Liu Kang found the bars easy to break open. Rusted to hell and barely held by crumbled stone, it wasn't the bars that held her in place, but the bondage and the chains.

"I cannot break these." He said of the chains that bound her to the Earth.

"Free my hands, and I will do the rest." She assured, but he was not so certain. She was bound like this for a reason.

Still, unable to accept any alternative with no means to turn back now, he tore at the leather until it ripped and shred and with great strength, broke her free.

She reached at her hips, but no vial to find, only chain locks.

Her only approach would be to cut herself. Shallow cuts, shallow little markings across her flesh that let the blood flow like little daggers that soon grew larger and larger until her power coagulated that blood into a weapon to break the chains. One at a time and with greater strength than it took to form them, she was able to split the links and key the locks with the blood until her body fell into Liu's arms.

He raised the torch from their faces and looked at her with a clearer view than he had ever seen. Bruises, welts, and her back as she crumbled, showed him the marred flesh from the cold cracks of a whip. She had been tortured and brutally scarred.

"Was this all Quan Chi?" He asked, unable to understand such violence upon the human body.

"Not just."

Together, collected on his arm, Skarlet held to him until she could move on her own as best she could and leaned back against the open bars when they reached Shang Tsung's cell.

She took in deep breathes, finally able to, and finally at such a crossroads as to free the man that raked her soul from her flesh, created and murdered her only kin, and now promised her the only means of vengeance and freedom.

"You better do what you say." She bit her lip, the hatred boiled within her as she stared him down between the bars.

"He will!" Liu Kang pushed between them. "Now let him go."

"You have my word, Skarlet."

"Your words have not meant much, you old snake." She spat, but she moved toward his cell with purpose as her hands began to coat with blood.

"It's not just my words I'm offering you in exchange for letting me out." He couldn't move closer, his withered body barely able to breath out each word he did speak.

"What choice do we have to get out of this alive?" Liu pandered to her senses, assuming she had any.

She eyed him, then Shang Tsung, then with little thought left, clenched the blood soaked hands around the bars and watched as the metal withered like dust within them.

"The blood of my enemy will set me free." Shang Tsung snickered, then coughed, still old, still withered away like a pile of bones. "You're not my enemy anymore, Skarlet."

"Where do we go from here?" Liu Kang pushed forward to assist Shang Tsung to his feet and soon all three gathered outside the cell.

"To get off this island, we must kill Quan Chi. He plans to end existence as we know it." Skarlet offered.

"Not just him." Shang Tsung added, "we must take care of Quan Chi, Kotal Kahn, and of course Raiden."

"I will not kill Raiden!" Liu Kang hissed. "As much as he has to blame for all of this, I understand he is trying to help."

"I do not expect anyone to murder a God, but he will try and stop us." Shang explained, "so then Skarlet, you will take on Kotal Kahn."

She let that sink.

She couldn't answer at first.

Whatever this mortal felt for Raiden, she felt for Kotal Kahn far much so, but the betrayal of her Kahn was deeper even than that. Could she free herself? Could she really be her own person and find some semblance of existence without him, without the army?

"You must believe in yourself." He could feel her turmoil, but something in his eyes reached out to her. She knew those eyes, but she could not understand it in that moment, so she collected herself as best she could in the torment of her body and nodded.

"Then I will kill Ko'atal."

"Only the three of us together can stop Quan Chi. We will meet in my old throne room when Raiden has been stopped, or makes his decision to help us, and when Kotal Kahn is defeated."

"What about you?" Liu asked, his eyes narrowed and he looked to find something in Shang Tsung that could spill the answers he needed through the viper's tongue.

"I will deal with Ermac."

The green hue of the entity matched the flame of the torch. The entity had been there far longer than they would have liked and the last guard within the lair for none shall enter, and none shall leave.

"We really doing this?" Skarlet looked back to Shang Tsung and Liu kang as together they formed this deadly alliance.

"I will see you in the throne room!" Shang Tsung collected himself, that withered pile of bones as best he could and used himself as a barrier between Liu Kang, Skarlet and Ermac.

He bore into the green light of the corpse's sockets for eyes and stretched an old playful smile across his ancient face as the two behind him fled.

"I believe those souls were mine!"


	98. 98 The Deadly Alliance pt I

Stuck together in the hot tomb of the Shokan Prince, Shang Tsung tugged on the soul bond that formed between he and Ermac. As the devil they knew struggled to pull back the screaming souls from the demon they don't, Ermac lifted to put distance between them and Shang Tsung. How connected they all truly were was even beyond Ermac's comprehension as a thin string of green light spiraled like a helix into the sorcerer's eyes from Ermac's.

"You may be many, but there need only be one."

The entity tugged back on the string, it's energy comprised entirely of the souls bound to it, and all the warriors and lives that failed to defeat the very being that now pulled to reclaim them. Unfixed to the Earth, Ermac lifted higher and higher until the stalagmites pressed against its leather attire and corpse shell.

What is the soul, and how could such a thing be so necessary for the vitality of life? Shang Tsung's flesh began to tighten, the specks of discolored flesh melted into uniformity and became stronger in the ability to even hold his ground as the entity he had lassoed to pulled harder and harder from his grasp.

If it's eye sockets could narrow, and its maw pinch in pain, Ermac would have as it allowed the souls to siphon between the two and the DNA like strand of life struggled to flow into the veins of Shang Tsung or the rotted shell of the corpse Ermac. On high, Ermac stared down on the hunger of the sorcerer as he freely fed upon him without realization that the entity had begun to lift him, gently at first, so as not to pull attention, but the moment Shang Tsung realized, Ermac shoved the body of his enemy into the stalagmites above them.

The string of souls ceased and the screams of the thousands of deceased died to a whisper until even Shang Tsung's own agony was eclipsed with a thud and then silence.

They stared, energy dull, but focused on the motionless pit of flesh beneath them. Blood dripped down onto the fallen Shang Tsung and after an ugly pause where it was ready to strike the final blow, the entity deemed the body a corse. An object to obtain its souls from.

Ermac lowered with a satisfied mind and over the gaping hole that bleed out from Shang Tsung's right shoulder blade where he had been imapled by a staggeringly sharp blade of earth, the entity began to siphon the energy back into itself.

The dust had yet to settle. The blackening pool of blood recoiled from the earth beneath Ermac's feet.

"You fool!"

Shang Tsung latched to the foot of Ermac and raked the corpse to the ground to climb and the soul bound between them strengthened in their closeness. He lodged his fingers into the eye sockets of the entity and split wide the jaw like a cracked egg and began to freely pull the souls from it. This healed Shang Tsung quickly, even as Ermac's hand tugged on his life force as he reached for the souls within it.

It could see with the eyes of those it had absorbed. The wilderness of Shang Tsung's own eyes burned across the very being of Ermac and threatened it with complete extermination. Its life force being rapidly depleted and the breath of death like dust across its whole being, Ermac reached out with its mind, not to attack, but to think for the first time on its own.

_Why do I demand to live when I know I do not?_

_ I want to._

Like the great force of gravity, Ermac repelled Shang Tsung back and hoisted itself upright. The sorcerer could not be bound by its force, this staggering ability Ermac itself could not understand for no spirit within it held such power, only Ermac itself.

He watched Shang Tsung, his hands performed the ritual of power over peace and then reached like the talons of the eagle to draw the final breaths of the life within the entity.

Ermac realized this was about Shang Tsung's need to live too, but only one could make it out alive.

Only one.

"Given up already?" A smug grin stretched across the youthful sorcerer as he neared with each step and the link between them grew ever in his favor.

It could speak any language the souls within had ever uttered, but in this moment, he dared not speak at all. He broke the link and pushed back to scour within itself one final time before a great white light burst from the eyes of the entity.

In his heightened frenzy, Shang Tsung pulled back on Ermac as it expelled hundreds of life forces in a seemingly last ditch effort to escape. When the light settled and the dust beneath him caked with his own blood, Ermac was gone.

The sorcerer paused, the energy that now revitalized the blood that coursed through him, the spark of life that ignited his brain and the will he felt to live returned in full force, almost better than before.

He wiped his mouth clean of the caked blood from the fall and smiled.

"Now you understand what it means to be alive." adding, softly as if to himself, "when you're ready to finish this, I'll be waiting."

As music played within the soul of Shang Tsung, outside the beat of Skarlet's drum pumped from her heart and her steps ached, her bones cracked, and her flesh suffered, but her resolve was never stronger.

Outside on the tournament grounds, the area where Kotal Kahn would watch with Quan Chi from the comfort of the pagoda, she stepped onto the raised stone platform that played arena to thousands of lives lost.

The moon glanced back down at her, full and rising, just like her heart beat.

The Naknada were in an uproar and battle could be heard in the distance, but already covered in blood, she didn't pay the world around her any heed.

There was only one person she wished to bleed.

She knew he could see her, if not at least hear her.

"Ko'atal!"

The bloody mess of Skarlet stood at the arena, in the center of a war around her, but Rain marched with Kia and Tanya through a bursted hole in the palace wall that lead straight into the forest.

"We need to find Kitana and end her." He ordered.

"She had been spotted by the tomb of the Kytinn." Tanya added, "let's start there."

Kia nodded and together they slipped through the forest as a horde of the Naknada rushed in all directions to meet the many combatants that spilled from the spires.

He no longer cared about the Queen to be, or the tournament that never was, but the kingdom that would come. With the brotherhood of shadow behind him, Rain would seek and destroy the last remnant that could end his claim to power in Edenia.

Her eyes watched the six arms beasts pass around her, none at her. She was a blood witch and though beaten and broken, the blood she spilled just to reach this platform would be enough for her to end them. The chairs that held the likes of Quan Chi, Kotal Kahn, Shang Tsung, and Shao Kahn now empty and ready to fall to ruin. She was too, but a sound behind her snapped Skarlet awake.

She turned to see a vial of blood, the vial she carried around with her as reserve and even her dagger tossed at her feet.

Tossed by Kotal Kahn.

"The traitor." He shot first.

"I never betrayed you, which cannot be said of you to me." She bit back, and could see the hurt in his eyes, hidden behind the fires of rage and fortress of arrogance.

His hand clenched the crescent mace, a smaller weapon to match her dagger even as it dwarfed Skarlet's weapon still.

"I did what I must for–"

She cut him off quick and her words sharper than the blade that raised from a pool of blood to her hand. "Jade is dead!"

This cut him and she could feel him bleed, and the anger rise, and the fortress crumble ever so slightly.

She wasn't finished though, and Skarlet cut further as she spoke, "nothing will bring her back."

"Shang Tsung has corrupted your mind, Skarlet!"

"No. No one's corrupted me." She smiled inside, the blood that dripped down her face a mess to behold on as her inner beauty scarred the beaten form of the witch. "I don't need anyone anymore. Unlike you, I believe in myself for once."

At the peak of his boiling point, Kotal Kahn charged his former right hand. She met him, though smaller she was able to drag step left and slice him at the lower ribs. He covered and met her eye to eye again with that crescent mace come to meet her face as well.

The blood on her face split from flesh like a parasite escaped from the chest into Kotal's. He spat and recoiled, then as he missed her, she pushed herself back to create as much distance between the two.

She would not win against his strength, but if she were smart, she could beat him.

"Shao was a Kahn, you are just Quan Chi's bitch!"

The beach was beautifully lit for Raiden and his army to march across. Raiden, Nightwolf, and Sub-Zero at the helm, with Johnny Cage, Sonya, Smoke, and Jax close behind. The spires had erupted in combat and the war zone had pushed them from the confines of them to the open area where they could see the walls of the tournament grounds and palace better.

Raiden was surprised to find Liu Kang close the gap between wall and sand to meet them.

"What have you done, Liu Kang?"

"We must find and stop Quan Chi!" Liu Kang did not answer, but his words were spoke with great urgency.

"What is going on?" Sub-Zero demanded.

"Shang Tsung is free, and he is our only chance of getting out of here." Liu answered, but Raiden's ire only grew.

"That snake? You have acted on behalf of that revenant soul within you!" Raiden couldn't believe this.

"Again with your nonsense, Raiden!" Liu couldn't either.

"Okay, so let's just find some way out of here." Johnny Cage intervened, only to pull back from the cold stare of both men.

"Liu Kang is right, Raiden." Nightwolf did not fear that anger. "Though his path was not the best one to take, it may have been the only one to choose."

"I believe Shang Tsung has your human soul, Liu. He is the one we're after." Raiden continued, "not just Quan Chi."

"I will do what I can to cease the chaos." Nightwolf turned from the two, "we must act now."

"He understands, why don't you?" Liu shot at Raiden, but the eyes of the God shot back with anger.

"I trust you more than anyone, but I cannot abide the freedom of a snake like Shang Tsung." He added, "we must cease the battle first, then I will deal with him myself."

"Raiden!" His eyes reached out to the God as best he could, this madness within them that compelled them to bicker, to fight, and whether it was the darkness in him he felt in the presence of Shang Tsung, or the arrogance of a God unable to understand human plight, he needed this entity to listen. "Let the past die, kill it if you have to. I don't trust Shang Tsung anymore than you, but right now our only way out is through him. Trust me, not him."

He could see through Liu now, the revenant spirit still burdened in his mortal coil of flesh and bone. The version of Liu Kang he had murdered in a moment like this. He swore when they faced Kronika together not to fight again, and though he felt the rage build within him to strike Liu Kang, he felt his own darkness creep into him.

"I trust you." Cage offered.

"Likewise." Sonya added.

"We'll find a way together, but only if we trust each other fully." Sub-Zero warned. "Raiden, you must follow his lead."

"So be it." The god nodded, and reached for his friend beneath the skin of this timeline's Liu Kang. "I must let the past die, and let us forge a new future together."

Together, they marched, only to separate when the broken walls granted them entrance.

Inside the walls, the moon watched the battle closely with interest. Its great eye now stared as Skarlet had been caught and pinned by Kotal Kahn against the palace inner wall. With a forearm across her throat that pinned her against the red stone, and the other braced against it, he pushed tighter and tighter to squeeze the life from her.

With each gasp she lost the words she thought, the thoughts she grasped and the life she yearned. The moon watched her and she watched it, but as his breath fell upon her, and his rage beat from his heart like a beast, she tried desperately with her fingers scraped across his arm to escape.

A futile effort.

In her final moments he took this to answer her remarks, if not to her, for himself.

"I am not Quan Chi's slave." He pressed tighter just to hear her gurgle and croak. "I am a slave to my heart, something you never had!"

He shot her down, bang bang. Oxygen became a distant memory and the moonlight dimmed for Skarlet. Her struggle to survive scraped down from his arm and fell to her side with barely a lift to grasp.

She thought a howl creased the air and pierced her ears, but perhaps the delusion had begun as death crept into the hotels of her eyes. Only until a shadow mass swept Kotal Kahn and raked him across the tournament ground.

She fell into a mess of blood and bones. Her hands scraped across the rocks to collected at her throat and wipe the life back into them as she gasped for air.

The massive beast leapt at Kotal Kahn, whom had met it in the form of the panther.

Should she help Nightwolf as the two locked fangs into furred flesh?

Though he betrayed her, she couldn't help. Skarlet took her chance to slip away into the palace grounds where instead she would find Shang Tsung and Liu Kang to help take down Quan Chi, the reason for Kotal Kahn's madness.

He was already dead to her. That was good enough for now.


	99. 99 The Deadly Alliance pt II

"He thinks he knows. Who he is, what's to come." She spoke softly in the darkness, "he has no idea.

Rain lead the march into the forest. The small patch of trees and swamp that cornered the palace and Shokan lair. From a distance, it could be seen that Tanya could outpace him, impatient, and needing resolve, but but her steps shadowed his. Kia behind them both watched all around, but she would never see what's coming for them. None of them could.

None of them knew what to look for.

"The seal isn't far." Tanya barked at Rain who had gotten several trees ahead and watched the burnt light of a pagoda crumble by the palace walls. "That's not the way!"

"This is the way." Rain demanded.

"How can you tell?"

"I can smell her perfume." He stopped to slip on the gold and purple veil, barely protective of his face, but good enough for the thick and thorny brush they must push forth to reach the pagoda across the swamp.

The trees cluttered and hugged together around the creases of viscous water. The path turned and twisted like a gnarled branch with only that dim fire light to illuminate the way, but how far it was and how long it would to reach could be two different things.

Close behind, perched from above, it could be seen that Tanya was hesitant to follow. She knew the way to the Kytinn seal and Kia followed her, but Rain kept ahead. If they were to truly consider him Prince, they'd follow blindly, but she finally stopped as they neared a broken bridge neither trusted to cross safely.

"You're going the wrong way." She hissed.

"You don't tell me what to do. I know she's here. I can sense it." He searched for the usurper Kitana, but though his senses did tell him otherwise, he began to feel Tanya may be right.

He dare not show it to her.

Blood and combat filled the air. The sounds of beasts roared and howled in the distance and all the same the hiss of the wind through the trees shouted into their ears. Even in the forest they were not welcome, but Tanya swore the true heir to the throne had been hiding here where no mortal soul dared venture.

"You were wrong." He snapped at her and closed the gap between them.

"You are stupid. Kitana is hiding amongst the dead. Not out in the forests." Tanya barked back, she would not be spoken down to. "You don't listen, Blind King."

Crack!

Hiss!

The idle wilds of the forest raised their voices as the two argued. it invigorated the forest to see them fight, the leaves shook and the wind screamed in rejoice of the violence to come. Tanya and Rain stopped to watch as though the wind swept above them, the cackling of bark and branches was lower to the ground.

"It's her." He was sure.

Kia turned her back to them and took the vantage point of the forest depth. Not too far off would be the entrance to the palace garden and just around that corner to it would be the Shokan's lair. Though not a long distance, the trees cluttered and seemingly moved and the scenery seemed different every time.

"It's nothing." She assured them.

As she turned to face Tanya, a mass swept her from her feet and knocked her against the cold bark of a large ancient tree with the carved face of a man that glared back down at her. She stumbled to her knees and screamed as the bark raked across her back, shredded cloth and skin like both were paper.

Rain and Tanya were now alert, but to what?

"There!" Tanya pointed and they raced to follow the nothing into the forest as brush and branches broke and pushed apart.

Kia was close behind, a cloud of black smoke faster than foot, but even as the shadow itself, could not decipher the creature they followed.

Faster!

Faster!

It moved with speed in the dense foliage and seemed to hop from to tree to tree, only showing itself in the form of claw marks that spat from the bark to their faces.

"Reptile!" Rain figured it out, but that knowledge didn't bring them any closer to the creature.

"He's trying to lure us into a trap!" Tanya knew better and tried to stop, but Rain wouldn't.

Forced to follow they lunged forth toward the creature in Kia's shadow cloud.

Lost in a wilderness of pain, all the trees stared on like they were insane. They've waited for so long to be stained in blood that they practically parted the way and unknotted the kinks to make something of a highway for the three. Let the Prince ride the King's Highway.

Free of the brush, Reptile manifested his true form only for the a split second. Enough for Rain to see him jump from the trees to the clearing ahead where, upon entry, they stopped dead in their tracks.

"Stop!" Rain demanded.

Before them, the seal of the Kytinn at the center of the clearing.

_Get here. . ._

They could hear the wind through the trees hiss to them.

_We'll do the rest. . ._

What the wind told them and rambled on, they could not hear but the seal too called to them.

"She's inside." Tanya urged and pushed ahead of the two.

Rain moved ahead of her and readied to lift the seal. "Watch out for Reptile. He's watching us."

Kia took watch, Tanya merely watched Rain, the impatient Prince as he slowly lifted the seal near forty five degrees wide to stare down the maw of darkness.

He stared back into the nothing.

_This is the end of your elaborate plans._

What stared back was darkness, a void he wasn't as sure to enter as Tanya urged of him.

He didn't need motivation.

The only thing he saw before a hand snaked out to pull him into the void was a great maw of jagged, pointed teeth.

Swallowed whole by the seal of the Kytinn, Rain vanished within and the metal closed tight above him.

Reptile's form emerged from above the two vile traitors. From on high, the acid that raced through his throat would spill down on them like rain.

The pit below, the spikes that reached up for him, the ground stained in the dead, an all too familiar sight for Johnny Cage as he and Sonya, Jax just a step ahead of them reached the teetering stone bridge.

One each end a small cavern, a recess of safety, but the bridge itself was thin and wavered from the howling wind. One one end, Quan Chi finally emerged from hiding. Of all the places, Cage though, of all the people to appear before, why them?

"You're not a God." Quan Chi answered. "Nor a champion." He added with a smug grin, "neither of you equal to that of the Lin Kuei, or the Shirai Ryu."

"No one asked your opinion." Jax readied his gun.

"You're entire life is just wasted potential." Quan Chi always had to have the last say, but the screaming of the skulls that emerged from the sides of the bridge roared over him at the mortals.

"We're not that easy to kill." Sonya aimed with Jax and together began to fire upon the grey skinned sorcerer.

Cage with kick and punch after hit and strike knocked the skeletons into the pit and as the green vapor cleared, Quan Chi was nowhere to be seen.

"Do you or don't you want me to make you?" His voice echoed within Cage's skull.

The actor turned to find the frail form of the sorcerer behind him. Spiked armor on his shoulders, his flesh painted and dressed for combat.

One quick look back at the tournament grounds, Kotal Kahn and Nightwolf tore at one another in the form of their animal spirits. Scorpion fought to reach the bridge through the mob of Naknada by the fiery forge. Quan Chi would have little time to sweep the three off their feet and cut Raiden's forces in half before he could even–

Forget that thought. A bolt of lightning shattered the rocky recess behind Quan Chi and reformed as the God of Thunder.

"Well played." Quan Chi nodded to Cage.

"Can't take us all, little bitch." Jax capped, Sonya aimed.

"Of course not." He agreed, but his posture was not that of a surrendering man. He stood his ground and waited as Raiden slowly approached as he knew the God would.

As the specter broke the barrier of guards, Raiden engaged Quan Chi. Johnny Cage flanked him with the God as Sonya and Jax backed away to the recess at the other end of the bridge, the only stable pillar left.

"Get over here!"

Scorpion threw the chain and spear for Quan Chi and the point rapidly crossed the distance between them.

Clink!

Held in place, even for a moment, Cage was lodged between the spear and Quan Chi. His punishment for betraying the sorcerer.

Raiden reached out as the sorcerer vanished. Scorpion held the chain still until Raiden could stabilize his Cage. Once free, he pulled back and vanished into flame.

Jax let Sonya race ahead, following close behind, but too late to close the gap. Meters away, the bridge began to crumble.

Beneath them the jagged limbs of skeletal hands tore at the fabric of the bridge's stone pillars. It would take them with it.

"Get us out of there Raiden!" Sonya reached over the collapse of stone with her voice, but the howling of the dead lifted higher than she could.

Raiden slumped with Cage, and what could be seen from the distance, a deep and precise cut between the second and third rib.

The crumbling grew and the cracks reached from the God and the dying Johnny Cage just as fast as they darted like snakes to Jax and Sonya, Raiden had a choice to make.

Splintered beneath them, the pillars gave way to the grasping hands of the dead.

The light emitted from the God eclipsed the sight Liu Kang and Kung Lao had as they raced from the other direction of the forge to the bridge. Having come from the warriors shrine, they raced across the ancient wood steps barely secured to the cliff face of the island, but the sight before them, the light, the dust, and the stone that withered down into the green mist gave them no hint of where Raiden and the others had gone, assuming they survived.

"Rain. Prince of the bog of eternal stench." Kitana emerged from the darkness with a lit torch.

"Usurper!" He lunged forth but the maw closed fast at him inches from his face.

A mutilated version of Kitana pushed him back into a carapace corpse of burnt Kytinn.

"Mileena. My sister." Kitana handed the torch to the half-tarkatan, half-Edenian. "Heir to the throne should I should to take it after my father."

He couldn't believe his ears, his eyes, any of this.

"What do you want?" His hands were up quick as the fire was held in his face.

Kitana lowered Mileena's reach to pull the fire from Rain.

"The punishment for treason is death." Kitana remembered, save for her own. "but you serve under Kotal Kahn, don't you?"

"No! Yes!"

"Which is it?" Mileena aimed the fire closer.

"It's complicated." Rain preferred the middleground, but the flames chose for him, "yes! Fine, I have been serving under Ko'atal up until recently."

"When you chose to betray him for power, I'm sure." Kitana could figure it all out, the words written plainly on that arrogant face. "You just want something for yourself, but Edenia isn't it. Outworld isn't it."

A sudden scream jolted the flame closer. Above them they could hear combat and the breaking of the trees.

"Tanya will betray you just like you do everyone else. You don't exactly exude leadership abilities, Rain." Kitana moved past the flame to press his chin in her squeezing hand and scrutinize the once proud Prince.

"What do you want?" He gritted out, and she slapped that veil from his face.

"Leave my father alone. He made you Prince and you weren't happy with that. Grow up." Her eyes cut into his through the shadow of the fire behind them. She meant to kill him should he allow her.

No words need be spoken. She didn't want to hear another from him. He nodded and slinked back from her as the seal lifted.

"We're done here." Kitana turned to Mileena and together lifted with Reptile's help out of the dark hole.

Rain?

As he reached out, he was sealed back in with only the torch and the cackling of carapaces around him.

By the warmth of the forge, Sonya, Jax, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, and Raiden surrounded Johnny Cage. Raiden knelt with him, a hand on the wound to heal as best he could, but the wound to deep and Scorpion's aim too precise.

"I can't heal you completely here, I need to take you back to Earthrealm." Raiden pressed his palm against Cage's ribs.

"Take him. We'll get Quan Chi." Liu Kang knelt with Raiden. "Shang Tsung will get us out of here."

"We all get out of this alive." Kung Lao added.

Cage smiled. What little he knew of them, for all the hell he'd caused and been through, for anyone to look after him was all he wanted. To be good enough.

He took Raiden's hand as the God pardoned the group to allow them to travel through the lightning that slowly rolled in from the storm clouds above.

With no desire to let go, Raiden held this man's hand tight to save him from the hell that surrounded them and reached for the sky with his eyes as streaks of lightning reached up to meet the lines that cast down at them.

Raiden looked down into Cage's eyes, a knowing smile that this man could surprise him so, even in this timeline, but soon horror as the green aura of Quan Chi's skeletons reached out from the depths of hell to pull Cage into the forge with them. The others were quickly expelled with the explosion of the metal structure. The lightning strike only fuel for the explosion.

What remained of Cage covered them. What remained of the rest scattered around Raiden.


	100. 100 The Deadly Alliance pt III

Victory doesn't come with redemption. Happy endings are never always the outcome of a long and hard fought battle to reach freedom. It's the moment you've realized that you've finally become the person you were born to be, the one person you've needed in your life all your life.

Raiden wasn't quite there, but to see the final moments of Johnny Cage reach his own struck a chord with him. As the ashes and the burning embers that surrounded him settled and the squirming bodies of the injured screamed and or lay motionless, his attention was not on them, but the war between the animals on the tournament ground.

Kotal Koahn held Nightwolf's throat in his wide maw, and great big paws that dug sharp talons into the wolf's chest had pressed tight to the ground and prepared to return the Native to his Great Spirit.

A strike of lightning clashed between them and the two bodies swung in separate directions. Both men forced into their human forms crashed into rock and bodies.

"Enough, Ko'atal! Nightwolf!" Raiden's voice rumbled through the bedrock beneath their feet.

Kotal Kahn pulled himself to his feet first, Nightwolf not far behind. Raiden closed the gap between them in a flash.

"Help them, or I will end you both." There was no denying the order.

Nightwolf raced to the scene, Kotal Kahn however was hesitant. A spark of anger, a gleam of red streaked the God's eyes.

"You are no God, Kotal Kahn."

"No. I am a broken man."

"Then mend the broken and I will see to it that you are among them."

"You cannot fix me, Thunder God."

"Quan Chi cannot return Jade to you, but there is a way to reach her without needless war."

The God lowered to Kotal's level and reached for his hand. Hesitant, Kotal stood unable to take it, unable to take any action. The bonds of Quan Chi's promises held tight to him, but the sorcerer had never promised action, only words.

"There are no second chances. No promises, Ko'atal." Raiden stayed his hand, extended, but not forever. "I do not offer this out of pity, but expectation that you will live up to your end of the bargain, and your role as a Kahn of Outworld."

Within the palace walls Skarlet traced the prison cells that lead to a path with one of many hidden entrances into the lair. She had seen the commotion on the tournament grounds, but her plan was to reach Quan Chi in the throne room with Shang Tsung and Liu Kang, not to interfere in Raiden's affairs. In the great hall that lead to the throne room and personal quarters of Quan Chi, the once lavish and lush chambers of Shang Tsung, she paused to stare down each end. Kotal Kahn had reached for Raiden's hand and the two had found some semblance of a common ground in this chaos. If only that could have been her and him.

She spat. It was too late to turn back. The job needed to be done.

With no sign of Shang Tsung, she passed from chest to chest, pillar to pillar and between the ruined walls until the great portal doors were shut tight before her.

There was no opening them.

Not without Shang Tsung.

_Unless I can go around._

From the forest she could possibly find some way in, or through the jagged ledge to her right climb, but that would be far more treacherous. She could also use the blood to lift herself over, but that would also expose her to the enemies on the other side.

She must find Shang Tsung.

Skarlet began to trace back, taking the left side of the isle and occasionally she would peer down the stone steps, past the open doors to the tournament ground to ensure Raiden's horde and most of all Kotal Kahn were busy. There was an opening, several now, to the forest where she could hug the walls to search for entry points, or trace back to the lair to check for Shang Tsung.

As she turned the corner, the rubble like a staircase up and over the massive hole in the palace wall, she was met with a strike that forced her back into a stone pillar.

Smack!

Her back cracked against the stone and her vial fell from her waist. It took a second to jog her brain back after her neck had snapped back into the stone, but before her was a stranger sight than she had expected.

Having emerged from the hole in the palace wall, a woman in pink and black simple clothing readied to strike again. She figured this person must have been the one to hit her, but the sight was hard to discern as the woman before her gritted a maw of tarlatan teeth.

Just like the child.

This half-tarlatan looked nothing like Skarlet, but more similarly to the Edenian that emerged behind her.

"Kitana?" Skarlet spat blood at her feet.

"I don't have time for you." Kitana disregarded the blood witch.

This was the straw that broke her. The abuse, the suffering, the torture and servitude all to be told her entire life that she'd never be good enough, never amount to anything equal to those she served. To be disregarded so offhandedly by the former goddess and have the mutant shoved in her face that Shang Tsung had created after the failure of her own blood to form the perfect Mileena, this was it.

No words need be spoken to the oligarch. Skarlet reached out with the blood still hot on her flesh and sent it like daggers scattershot toward Kitana and Mileena.

The Edenian absorbed as much as she could with the full opening of her fans, Mileena behind the shield, but first to break the folds to lunge at Skarlet.

She struck stone with a punch the witch dodged and shook it off as her knuckles immediately split and bled. Skarlet straight kicked the half-tarkaten into the small stone ornamental fence that would have encased a lavish treasure chest in Shang Tsung's days. As Mileena tripped over onto the ground, Kitana was next to swing each fan one after the other to slice her old enemy.

Skarlet rotated around the pillar to escape the sharp edges of the metallic fans and with the blood spilled started to form the shape of a scythe. Once fully realized, the pole arm was tilted and the reaper's edge came down on Kitana, but the Edenian was quick to use the pillar for protection just as Skarlet had.

Mileena flanked the blood witch, her maw wide and salivated, the rage within her like that of a full Tarkatan.

Caught between a rock and two vile enemies, she stuck Mileena with the butt of the blood scythe and then swung up with the blunt edge of the blade to distance herself from Kitana, then in a quick series of steps turned and spun the scythe to swipe at the half-tarkatan. The blunt edge had caught Kitana's cheek and knocked her to the center of the isle, the stain of blood, Skarlet's and Kotal Kahn's splashed from her face to mix with her own.

Mileena forced herself into Skarlet's measure and took hold of the blood witch's wrists. A struggle ensued for the weapon, but Mileena was outmatched by Skarlet's magic. Once a pole arm, the scythe melted into tiny daggers of coagulated blood that speared into her.

A thousand needles all struck her like hornets and forced her back. Kitana pushed forward, but the blades swiftly altered course to strike at her behind Skarlet.

Her focus on the half-tarkatan, she began to step back and trie to find a pillar to back into. She had a plan, but with two enemies at her throat, she needed to be careful.

Together again, Kitana and Mileena flanked the blood witch and edged her to the center of the path toward the palace.

In the distance, just over the shoulder of the mutant, she saw Raiden's group slowly pull themselves together. Soon the God would interfere, but never in her favor. She had to make her stand, or she would never join Shang Tsung and Liu Kang against Quan Chi.

"It doesn't have to go this way!" Kitana offered, but the blood lust of the half-tarkatan and the witch were too great to penetrate with rationale. She tried again, "come with us."

As the spinning wasps of blood swung around her like a buzzing tornado, she heard Kitana, but the sight of the half-tarkatan was too much to ignore. The sight of what the child could have become had it not been slain by the sorcerer. Had her blood not been slain before her eyes. Mileena was an abomination, no matter who's blood was used to create her, but to know it was Kitana's that was allowed to live and not hers.

"You wish!" She spat and raised herself into the air.

Mileena leapt for her and held tight to her legs. The witch was thrown off and the buzzing spears of blood cut and stabbed and stung Mileena and Kitana as they lunged in measure.

She struggled to free herself. From the claws of the half-tarkatan, and the servitude offered by the Edenian oligarch. To free herself from her own torment. Skarlet cast the blood down at them, but Mileena's Tarkatan blood would not let her give up. She dug her claws in, her teeth next and swung the witch like a bat into the nearest stone pillar.

Kitana reached out to her, but Mileena leapt for her prey and in one hard bite bore a chunk from the witch's shoulder and neck, then her ribs. Before she realized Skarlet had stopped fighting back and the blood had settled, Mileena was forced off her.

Skarlet reached for her vial, but it had fallen so long ago in the fight. She tried to scream, but the wound at the corner of her shoulder and throat boiled over with pain as her muscles, exposed, desperately gasped for air.

Kitana pulled Mileena away and the two rushed to through the nearest entrance, toward the prison cells.

Skarlet alone, reached out with any strength she could muster for the blood that spilled around her, but there was no stopping it.

"This is it." Raiden looked around them, Kung Lao hung an arm over Liu Kang's shoulder, Jax, unscathed save for the melted parts of his arms sat Sonya down on the stone rubble, but beyond the loss of Johnny Cage, none were too injured to continue.

Smoke and Sub-Zero emerged from the cavern entrance past the pit that lead to the Naknada statue. The Lin Kuei immediately soothed the burning of the earth around them, but they could not piece together their fallen ally.

"The Naknada have receded back to Outworld. Scorpion has found a way into the palace from the back, Shang Tsung has opened the way." Sub-Zero announced.

"Not all of us should go." Liu handed Kung Lao to Nightwolf. "We need to focus our effort on Quan Chi, too many people will make it easier for him to hit us all at once."

"He's right." Kotal Kahn added, "Quan Chi's skeletons will make short work of your injured friends, Raiden. Take Liu Kang and Sub-Zero and meet Shang Tsung. That should be enough."

"What about you?" Liu turned to the Osh-Tekk, the trust not yet there.

"I do not trust myself to not intervene. I will stay and as best I can." He assured, but only when his weapons were tossed amongst the rubble did Liu Kang believe it and gather with Raiden and Sub-Zero.

"I don't need to sneak to get in." Raiden reached for the two and in the light, blinded the group until the flash was gone with them.

Shang Tsung emerged at the portal doors to the palace. Raiden, Liu Kang, and Sub-Zero appeared shortly after him.

"I had meant to appear inside." Perplexed, Raiden approached the doors.

"They are bound by his magic." Shang Tsung answered, but the snake's lips smiled. "Unfortunately for Quan Chi, this is my island and it obeys only my command."

The defenders of Earthrealm parted the way as Shang Tsung began to chant a low hymn until a crease widened between the large red doors. Ancient but sturdy, but the spell cast upon them by Quan Chi twisted at the hinges, and cracked the ancient wood. With aid of a strike of the God's lightning, the doors gave way and the throne room that had seen many final moments of thousands of champions throughout Mortal Kombat laid open before them.

"You first." Shang Tsung paid deference to the God, and Raiden was quick to take it and enter.

Shang Tsung's grin melted the moment they entered, for though he would join them, something had caught him in the distance.

Before him, the stone pillars that marched down the wide gates into the tournament grounds looked as though they had taken many hits and many chucks tore from them. He was not pleased at the sight of his island in ruins, but something else caught his attention more than that of the rubble he would tireless work to repair.

Carefully he approached the body of Skarlet. Unsure if she still lived in agony of her wounds, but the shell beneath him was not quite dead yet as he would discover.

She gasped for breath, but choked on her own blood. It spilled like rivers down the corners of her mouth and past the hill of her bottom lip.

"You don't look so good." He offered humor, but realized the grim scene before him was worse than his jest.

The half-tarkatan had taken deep, fatal chunks out of Skarlet's body. The whites of her ribs jutted over the tattered muscle that was meant to protect them, and the pulse of her neck spilled further onto the ground all the blood that was meant to keep her alive.

"I cannot heal you." She watched as he knelt before her and spoke softly. "At least, not physically."

Unable to respond, unable to process this in the trauma of her injuries, she could only watch as he raised from his knees and reached over her.

Shang Tsung peeled back the long sleeve of a silk tunic he had salvaged and from the creases of his palms a light emerged. She could only hear his mantra, fear that her soul would be devoured and forced to live forever in servitude within the sorcerer.

"I promised to reward you for freeing me." He broke the mantra and smiled, but the eyes that stared back no longer blinked. The blood that flowed now spilled like a stagnant pool. "This belongs to you."

His eyes closed as the light reached for her in the form of two small hands and the face of the half-tarkatan child he had once taken from her.

"Your soul."

As his eyes opened he stepped back. This was her moment now, and he was needed elsewhere.

Inside the palace, Quan Chi stood on the second floor and gazed down at the hunger city of ravenous mortals eager to tear him limb from limb.

"Is this it, Raiden?" He slowly descended the staircase.

Liu Kang and Sub-Zero stood side by side with the Thunder God as skeletons emerged from the fine stone flooring.

"This is all you have to fight me with?" The sorcerer snickered.

"No, but it's enough." Raiden shot back.

Quan Chi grinned, arrogant and ready to see the end of the Thunder God, he reached deep with his voice and readied a hollow bellow that would summon a legion of the dead far beyond the skeletons that followed him.

A staff emerged through the veins of lightning within Raiden's right hand and he clapped the end against the stone floor, but his display was nothing in comparison as the snake that was Shang Tsung appeared behind Quan Chi.

"I'll be taking my island back." He smiled, but not to see the surprise of Quan Chi's face as he turned to see Shang Tsung behind him, but for the split second he Scorpion passed between them to erupt in flames and spit the two outward from the ashes of the crumbling staircase.

Shang Tsung hung in the air. Scorpion lunged for Quan Chi, his blade drawn, but Raiden knew better. Before the specter could take the sorcerer's life he let lightning consume him and darted for the two.

Scorpion's blade swung down like a guillotine at the fallen sorcerer's neck.

The crack of lightning, the flash of light.

Blood erupted over Raiden's white robes and Scorpions yellow and black attire.

Only Raiden remembered that it was Quan Chi's energy that would set Hanzo free from the specter. His grasp of Scorpion was tight, but he could not hold Quan Chi soon enough. The sorcerer's head rolled and the skeletons crumbled to dust.

Raiden's free hand still clutched for Quan Chi, but the deed was done. Scorpion swung the blade clean of the sorcerer's blood and pulled himself from the God's hand in the fire that was his very essence.

"Well," Shang Tsung lightened the atmosphere, "that was more anti-climactic than I thought it would be."

"Still, it is done." Sub-Zero chimed in.

"No." Liu Kang pushed forward. "You said you had something of mine, I want it back!"

"Oh? Did I say that?" A smile returned to the sorcerer and soft chuckle. "I suppose I did."

"Return his soul." Raiden raised up with him, he could see within him. Liu Kang reached out for Raiden from within the confines of the snake that bound him.

Incensed, Liu would be betrayed yet again, but he stood his ground. Shang Tsung must live up to his end of the bargain.

Right?

Raiden prepared to perform the same power needed to return Scorpion to his humanity, but this time to for Liu Kang to be pulled from the snake before them.

"You've done that before, Raiden." Shang Tsung caught him off guard.

Lightning stretched and the hands of light clasped for Shang Tsung. The white veins of the God's power crashed into itself and the sorcerer vanished.

Instead of the energy meant to restore Liu Kang, he felt a corruption in the lightning that returned to him and heat that encased the Thunder God. It burned his flesh and the air around them hissed and cackled until he crashed to the ground, to grass instead of stone.

He quickly pulled himself to his feet and instantly horrified at the sight before him.

Liu Kang, Sonya, Nightwolf, Kung Lao, Kotal Kahn, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Jax, Kitana and Mileena. All of them expelled from the island back to Earthrealm.

Raiden traced the eyes around him to Liu Kang. Broken. The Revenant still within him.


	101. 101 Kenshi

**T**he fire warmed his hands and the food his stomach, but the thoughts never sated his mind. At every distance fields of hills, sparse tree scattered the landscape until the hills cracked into mountains and the scars of the Earth rippled across the far distance.

Each bite lingered on a thought he feasted hungrily on, but not a single one sparked that wonderful sense of realization and clarity he so yearned.

Each step beyond the fire was a beat of his heart, the only song he could hear. The faster it hit, the closer he felt to his goal, but this time, he wasn't quite sure where that goal would take him.

Kenshi Takahashi sat in complete silence, with only his heart and the soft chattering of the fire to accompany him. Once the rations were spent, there was only time to sleep. Night, day, it didn't matter on this journey, only the destination, only that it be reached.

To find it, he would have to lose himself in the journey, and in the expectation that it could very well be his last. Would this be his last time to taste whatever he had eaten, or to sleep again? Would this be the last night to think and enjoy his own thoughts as they became the only company he could maintain on this journey?

He was not quite alone.

His head rested on the pillow of the Earth and his hand rested on the handle of his sword, a japanese katana made of the finest steel, but cursed.

The moment his fingers pressed against the fabric wrap of the handle he could feel his entire body pulse. His heart became erratic and only through breathing in tune with the grip of the sword on his heart could he find some balance and rest.

In his sleep, night or day, he could hear it speak to him. The voices of men and women that extended their hands through their spirits to guide him through these uncharted lands.

_Mercy. Compassion. Forgiveness you lack._

He listened.

_For those regarded as warriors, the languishing of thine enemy can be the warrior's only concern._

He could feel the hands reach around his at the handle and enter him, but no vision planted like a seed in his brain the faces of the voices, the distance he travelled, nor the destination he sought.

_We are near._

We are many.

The further he travelled the louder another voice was that had crawled into the blank canvas of his dreams. These nights, as that voice which echoed that of many voices caused found him awakened with the blade of Sento drawn and laid across his chest like a barrier to ward off the yokai that roamed the Japanese foot hills.

_Seek us at the bone eater's well._

The fabric pressed back on his eyes as he wakened. He brushed the sleep from his face, the grit of his hair scraped across his hands and fabric wiped away with a simple tug.

Sento again rested heavily on his chest and his hand tight around the handle. It took another to pry his fingers from it and even more to will himself to return the blade to its sheath.

When the cold air whispered to him, he realized it was time to brush away the last embers of the fire and gather what little belongings he scattered around the camp close to him.

There was only the destination.

Nothing else mattered lest he fail.


	102. 102 Kenshi

Day, night, whatever it was didn't matter. Kenshi lifted from a deep sleep into another wake cycle. He took a deep breath and felt the sword on his chest, unsheathed, sharp enough to cut the thin fabric he slept in, but it never did.

Back in its sheath, Sento beckoned Kenshi to move through the foothills of Japan, toward a tree line far in the distance. Each step though his own seemed forced by the sword from the distance each foot took from one another to the direction they made. This was simply the journey he needed to make.

In his dreams he heard an unfamiliar voice lure him to a spot called The Bone Eaters Well. If this is where Sento would take him, he would go, but the voice was not just in his dreams. It followed him in every blade of grass he crushed beneath his boots, and every bark of tree he touched as he passed deeper into the forests.

_There we will see you._

His hand lowered from bark to hilt as the tree line broke and the scar of land opened up for him. The fabric taut around his eyes, he let the blade guide every step until he touched what felt like moss on stone and then the hard surface of stone itself.

The surface continued in a circular pattern and had two edges, dull on one end and sharper on the other. There was no wood to indicate a well where water could be retrieved, but the dull edge fell into a deep abyss the blade forbade him from reaching into.

Starting from the wrist, his veins pulsed and beat louder and faster as it traveled up and through his body. Sento could sense something was near.

Kenshi halted all movement. Instead of touch, he let his ears search his surroundings. There was nothing at first, just the silence of the forest but the longer he listened, the louder an oddly familiar sound came from deep within the well.

Crying.

It sounded like a woman and he reached, despite the pulse of the blade that held tight to his hand. He reached for a rope he swore was not there at first, but pulled. He could hear a woman trapped within a well and felt her tug on the rope like dead weight that needed his rescue.

He felt flesh, bare skin and cheeks of tears that crumpled over the edge. He could tell she was nude, he hair long and cast like water down her back and chest.

"Thank you!" She cried and held him.

One hand reached around her, but the other still determined to connect with Sento struggled with the pull the blade had on him. How could it be that this woman was a threat? He saved her.

However, had Sento ever been wrong?

"Hold me." She cried and her arms wrapped around his shoulders like a lover would. Her breasts against his chest, her body warm despite having lingered in the dark cold recess of the well.

That was the first sign.

Her breath was hot to his skin and her flesh comforting, and warm to the touch. He could melt in it if she let him. Forever even, if he let himself.

One hand around her waist, the other on the hilt of the blade that struggled to keep him still.

"What's your name?" He asked when he motioned to partition distance between them with his hand that raised to her shoulder. "How long have you been here?"

"I can't think straight right now, just hold me." Strange, and she grasped him again. This time, her warmth encompassed him, his heart beat faster and his free hand lowered to the small of her back.

This was wrong.

She was. Wrong.

"Be in me, Kenshi." She whispered into his ear.

His pulse became erratic as it fought Sento and the woman whom each tugged on him. He wasn't sure if it was the physical contact that he had not felt in so long, or the idea of the warmth and comfort she offered. The embrace she gave, but it was all wrong. Why if it wasn't right did he feel the need to give in?

The hand on the hilt tightened and began to slowly pull the blade free of its confines.

"You wouldn't hurt me, would you?" She noticed and held tighter. "I've been alone for so long, and I know you have too."

"Let go of me." He warned. Calmly at first.

Her embrace never seemed threatening, in fact quite the opposite. It invited him more and more until when he tried to move his hand from the small of her back he had felt his fingers almost melded to her flesh. He was being absorbed into her. The ecstasy of her flesh, and necessity of her love pulled him deeper and deeper into her.

Sento freed itself through his hand and with a simple roll of the wrist, cut her embrace and arms. He pulled back, the loss of that connection cut deep down his throat with a hard cold gasp of air that choked him. The apathetic world rushed to his head and he felt himself yet again, enough to control the blade and aim it precisely between the eyes.

"What is this?" She cried. "Why must we fight? I love you!"

"You're not human." He realized, though he could not see what truly held him before.

The flesh that fell from his shoulders puddled around him when he had stepped over it.

"I am whatever you need me to be."

His heart rate began to settle and his movement precise as he struck her wit the blade and landed cleanly between the second and third rib. Right in the heart.

She gasped.

She cried.

She reached out with hands that desperately sought his touch. Perhaps if she could just touch him one more time, he'd stay with her. He'd understand what she had to offer the Ronin.

Another swing and the woman's head ceased its tears and slashed into the stagnate pool of dead water deep in the well. It rustled the bones left inside, the skeletons he would never see, never know as his brethren now that she had been slain.

Sento, sated, returned to its sheath, but he was not ready to relax.

_We see you, Kenshi._

He could hear the voice of his dreams like the rustle of the trees all around him. It wasn't a single voice, but many. He spoke with only one.

"Are you who I seek?"

_We are._

"Where are you?"

_In the cave, seven cycles east, as you call them._

Sento pulsed.

His blood raced and his body felt alive for the very first time since he embarked on this strange journey.

He would soon reach his destination.

Who he was, what's to come, all of it in his grasp.


	103. 103 Kenshi

The mind.

A cave of wonders. The prison cell of of our experiences often twisted, changed, or reinvented to be subjected to the version of ourselves we either wish to become, or have desperately sought to suppress.

Kenshi's was blank.

As he woke on the seventh day of the seventh cycle, he awoke to Sento on his chest, his hands clutched it tighter than any waking cycle before. His knuckles white, the blade pulsed and his breath almost torn from him as he woke in a sweat and gasp for life.

Every night closer was a night colder and a night he suppressed his mind further and further with the blade. Only it could speak to him, only it could move him. His ancestors, their visions, their need for his journey to be as he needed it to be, or as they needed it be projected into him. What was the blade and what was his memory? His or its desire?

After a cold ration on a dull flame hidden by mud from an long night's rain, he sheathed the sword and prepared to reach the entrance of the forbidden cave.

The end of his destination.

This is the end.

_ We have been expecting you._

The voice crept like the rustle of grass beneath his feet, except it's all been caked in dirt and rocks. Though he felt the sun above him and the pierce of it through the fabric that covered his broken eyes, his flesh was cold.

One hand on the hilt, the other reached out to find the opening of the cave.

The course grain of stone across the cold sweat of his fingers edged slowly to the opening of which must be as dark as the empty recess of his eyes. No light shined in his darkness, but he envisioned what it must be like, or let the blade envision it for him.

Meters in and he found his steps dryer, but no closer to his objective. No further in toward his destination.

The ancestors breath took his own and he moved with their steps, but his own heart beat faster as he entered and slower when he stopped to realize the voice that had been the only thing he heard inside his head had stopped.

After an ugly pause, the deafening of the world around him was too much.

He betrayed the warning of the blade in his hand and called out to his objective.

Before his lips could part in the cold air, the walls of the cave spoke first.

_We have seen you. Can you see us?_

"No."

He stepped further in. With no understanding of the paths that turned, the forks that coursed like jagged veins through the cave he moved only as the blade told him.

_Are you a gift_ to us?

"No."

_They send us a gift. We leave them alone._

"The town?"

He could sense the walls tighten around him. A dead end perhaps, but the moment his body turned his ears were pierced and bludgeoned by a scream and the inability to grasp the words spoken until heard again.

"Tasukete!" The walls cried

He could sense the voice was female, and the dialect possibly of the near by town. Her voice however echoed off the walls with what sounded like a hiss, and the rumble of deep chested predator that would scour the foothills for prey to enter.

Like him.

Sento turned him toward the nearest fork, and he heard it again, but the voice was another's. A male's.

"Hitori ni shinaide!" Young, perhaps early twenties.

The voices grew the closer he travelled in, but only one grew louder than all the rest, even than that inside his head.

Which reached out him again as a dead end struck him and he squeezed Sento with anger.

_Why did you leave them?_

"I didn't."

_Did you leave them for me?_

He chose not to respond.

What seemed like an hour, maybe less, maybe more, he had lost track until such time passed that physically he felt exhausted and only when he could feel the walls open again and a chamber open up did he stop to take a breath, to rest.

As he sat on the dry stale Earth and soaked in the dust around him he could hear what sounded like wet sniffling. A bear? He listened and deduced that the sound, as it waxed and waned was human.

Crying.

Sniffling.

Sadness.

A female, the one that had gotten louder and louder until this very moment.

The other voices eclipsed by the fading of hers, even the voice inside him.

Gone.

Though he could not see around him, he reached out with his free hand and felt flesh, cold, and dry quiver and recoil from him.

"What is this?" He asked as the flesh was real, and the voice suddenly louder as the woman had been startled.

She sobbed, but her words were not intelligible.

_She cries for her child._

_Gone._

"What is this?" Almost demanded of Sento, of the voice.

The woman recoiled when he tested her to pull her to her feet. She begged of him with her sobbing. To bring her child back for it, like her, had been left to die here.

He pulled himself up with aid of the wall and listened to her cry a moment longer. The blade pulsed and yearned to release but this time he didn't give in. Not to it, but to the voices.

_Stay with us._

_We need you more than them._

He backed away into rough stone. The blade quivered for release, but he could only hold it.

Unable to strike, he ran.

_Don't go!_

The cries grew louder. The children, the women the loudest until his knees struck mud and the heat of the sun pressed against his face again.

He couldn't stop.

He had to run.

Further and further until the nightmare was over and the vast emptiness of sleep would overcome him by force if necessary.

The screaming of the blade and the voice inside his head now lambasted him in unison.

Was he going the wrong way?

Had all of this already been a mistake?

Only until the cold comfort of night did he stop. Until exhaustion forced him down did he rest.

Only when the nothing of sleep come did he allow himself to rest.


	104. 104 Sonya Blade

"You believe this shit?"

She pulled herself up on the cushion and wiped her mouth clean of slumber.

"What's this?"

Jax stared at the small print of the paper leaned up from his lap. She swiped it to look.

"Monsters."

"April, 20th, 1999, two kids wearing Marilyn Manson t-shirts shoot up high school. Twelve students dead." She read, "there's a picture. Don't look like Manson shirts to me."

"Jesus, Sonya, what's happening in our country?"

"Let's focus on the mission at hand."

The captain spoke, the small plane finally breached the long sea and shoveled through the clouds over the African continent. It wouldn't be for another hour before they landed but once their feet touch the ground, both noted the stunning head of the countryside as the sun glared down at them.

"No wonder everyone misses the rain here." Jax jested, but both were quickly ushered to the nearest town via an old, barely suitable grey car both believed would fall apart before even turning on.

"Welcome to Sierra Leone." The driver offered the them only these words during their drive through.

Stopped only in the back lot of St, John of God Hospital, paid for the ride out of pocket, the cash American, and the two were quickly abandoned at the hospital once their feet touched the ground again.

"Things are tense here too." Sonya noted.

"Never cared for politics." Jax returned.

At the back entrance there was dirt, pavement, and chain link fencing that surrounded a sickly sea green concrete slab of a building. Rows of black windows lead them to a door where a man, dark of skin adorned in a blood stained coat with clean gloves and mask met them and opened the door wide until both entered.

"Welcome, Agent Blade, Agent Briggs. The body is down the hall, the third room to your left."

As they lead the way, he soon followed and took a few steps ahead of them to let them in. The room was nondescript. Clean, the walls caked with aged paint, and a metal table at the center with a white cloth laid over the body.

"What do we have here?" Jax pulled close to the doctor as Sonya closed the gap between her and the body, having taken to slowly walk along the right side and investigate the curves and fabric.

"Look for yourself." He insisted.

She nodded for approval, but he had already given it. Slowly she peeled back the fabric to reveal a near shriveled human form, female, African, clothing torn and dried blood stained her body, but the point of interest was not the body itself, but the cause of death.

"Two puncture marks on the neck." She noticed.

"Show me." Jax approached.

"Looks like animal bite." She suggested.

"Too clean." He knew better.

"Unless the killer had a barbecue fork."

"That's no barbecue fork, Agent Blade." The doctor took the edge of the table and insisted she look closer. "A young girl, only fifteen years of age."

"Local?" Jax pondered.

"No."

"How did she get here?"

"They all do."

Ugly pause.

Jax and Sonya looked up from the body into the beaten brow of the doctor who's age and wear had only now begun to show itself to them. So occupied with the project, they forgot their manners of introduction.

Too late now.

"Seventeen of them."

"A serial killer?"

"That is what the government believes."

"The same government currently at war with itself."

"What do you believe?" Jax asked.

The doctor stared for a moment, he dared not speak, but they insisted.

"The people are scared." He added, "they say it is a monster."

"Monsters don't exist." Sonya quickly interjected. "There's a serial killer out there. Is there any connection to the Black Dragon?"

"No."

"What kind of monster?" Jax needed to know. This was the lore of the people, and he put his ear to the ground as Sonya stared with disbelief.

"They believe a monster that flies at night is killing young girls and draining them of their blood."

"Skarlet?" He pondered to himself, but the name disappeared into the thick air around him. He realized she was gone, he had seen it for himself, but Sonya had nothing else to offer.

"I don't know that name."

"Is there someone that might know more?"

"Tell me," the doctor withheld from them, he needed to know as well, "what interest does the United States have in the deaths of these girls?"

"Nothing." Jax added, "we're the Special Forces."

"Who knows more?"

He stared, unknowing of their intention, unsure of their future. The body was covered and their eyes stared him down.

Well?


End file.
